"An amnesty program would tend to defuse the agricultural shortage-of-labor problem in..."

                There is no shortage of labor in agriculture. The shortage is in people who have better options than to work for nothing.

                If the employers had to pay living wages and benefits, most of us who worry about "illegal immigration" would probably sit still long enough to see it it worked out. We would all pay a little more for fruits and vegetables for a while, but the costs of public services would go down.

                The other thing that would have to be done to satisfy me would be to put some kind of limitation on "birth-right citizenship." Some illegal aliens cross the border for the sole purpose of having their child become a US citizen, which allows the parents to line up for public assisted housing and other public programs.

                Employers who hire these people, and do not pay a decent wage, and do not pay payroll taxes, and then threatens the immigrant with deportation for the purpose of keeping him/her in line, is the worst kind of scum-bag as far as I'm concerned.