Of course, that's the big idea: remember his "humane immigration" policy from the November debates? We can't send folks away who have been living here "a quarter century". It's "anti-family". So, in that case, one doesn't even need a citizen board to use any discretion at all - just prove that one has been here for 25 years and has started a family here, etc. (of course all will be forgiven about using false identity documents, etc.). People can all it whatever they like (especially if it has compassionate or humane in the title), but it's still amnesty. If you hide out long enough and have kids, you get the golden ticket.
True, and establishing guidelines for which people are given legal status is one aspect of immigration law that would have to be done centrally or chaos would result.
This local board nonsense is a totally dumb idea and an insult to every citizen in its pretense that local communities would have some meaningful decision making role.
Newt's a disaster waiting to happen on the immigration issue. We'll have to have a Congress to keep the next president in check, whoever it might be.