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I have a question I’d like to ask of my fellow Freepers.

"A" implies "one", but there are several here. That's OK.

Would anything short of deportation of illegal immigrants still be considered amnesty?

Yes.

Realistically and logistically, how are we going to deport 12+ million illegal aliens?

One at a time if need be.

What can actually be done?

See my model immigration law in bold below.

A partial solution

is necessarily incomplete and therefore does not actually solve the problem. Like a band-aid on a compound fracture, it may look like a good effort but will not address the whole problem and may in fact ignore the worst of it.

one that I think would work

By your own admission, only partially...

would be to allow anyone who is here illegally to come forward, on their own accord, by a date certain, and admit they are here illegally...The court would find them guilty of a felony, but the lowest class of felony...The individual would then be allowed to remain in the country legally...They would become permanent resident aliens, legal aliens, upon payment of the $5,000 fine and verification of compliance with the other terms of the punishment.

Great. Now we have a permanent underclass of low-grade felons. THWT.

I don’t claim that this would be a perfect solution, but I think it just might be part of the solution. It provides an incentive for illegals to come forward and be identified, but also imposes punishment for the crime they have committed by being here illegally. And it prohibits those people from ever becoming legal U.S. citizens.

I welcome your thoughts.

Here they are: ExGeeEye's Model Law on Illegal "Immigration"

1. Illegal aliens are to be detained upon detection and deported within twenty-four hours.

2. Any citizen knowingly employing, sheltering, concealing, or otherwise assisting (other than emergency medical care) an illegal alien shall suffer forfeiture of all property, real and personal, all assets, businesses, business licenses, and any other thing except his/her physical freedom and two changes of clothing; after which he/she may seek employment and start over.

3. Any non-citizen legally resident, acting as described in para 2 above, shall suffer the same penalty and be deported to his/her country of origin within 48 hours.

4. Any public official, in any branch of government, at any level, who under color of clemency, legal discretion, or other official privilege, shall obstruct, alter, or modify the swift application and extent of paras 1-3 above to any degree soever, shall suffer the same penalty and be summarily removed from office.

(That’s to keep judges from saying “ooooo, that’s too harsh” and governors etc. from handing out pardons to business-owner buddies.)

Someone has said it would take decades to detect and deport the illegals we have, even if no more came in. It reminds me of a story about Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France for a while. He once ordered that the roads of France were to be lined with trees, so that French soldiers could always march in the shade. His advisers replied that it would take twenty years to plant that many trees, and twenty more before they grew tall enough to provide the shade Napoleon sought. His answer to them is the same as mine to the people who talk about how long it would take to expel the illegals:

"Alors, il faut commencer toute de suite!"

"Well, then it must begin at once!"