Immigration reform was proposed by President Bush a year ago, nothing new here.
What "FAIR" calls amnesty, the rest of us call it immigration reform.
If I recall correctly, we have always had semi-open borders with Mexico. We had very few border checkpoints until the 1920s.
Then when we clamped down on immigration from Europe, Mexicans were exempted from those quotas.
Later when Mexicans were subjected to the quota system if they wanted to relocate as US permanent residents, they were given a break with the 'bracero' program.
The current mess at our border is the result of an insane border policy. As long as American businesses need unskilled labor, Mexicans will cross the border.
We either do it legally with a temporary workers' program, or we do it illegally by keeping the status quo. Capitalism always beats unreasonable government constraints.
The Mexican paradox is that when Mexicans are allowed to work as guest workers, they tend to leave their families and Mexico and return after making enough money to be middle class in Mexico.
When Mexicans are not allowed to have a temporary legal status in the US, they tend to stay and bring their families, artificially increasing the Mexican migration to the US. Such artificial and unnatural increase leads to a lot of economic and social problems in our border areas and large cities.
I hope rational folks will deal with this issue calmly, looking for a solution that it's best for our country, instead of getting emotionally entangled in intractable demands. Our historical ties to Mexico and our traditional border movements will have to be considered to make any new reform useful.
My $0.02