[Cheerio]

It’s currently illegal to work in this country without having legal status to be here.

AND it is also a felony (or at least it used to be) to assist anyone in this country illegally to get a job.

Federal Immigration and Nationality Act
Section 8 USC 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv)(b)(iii)

Section 274 felonies under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, INA 274A(a)(1)(A):

A person (including a group of persons, business, organization, or local government) commits a federal felony when she or he:

* assists an alien s/he should reasonably know is illegally in the U.S. or who lacks employment authorization, by transporting, sheltering, or assisting him or her to obtain employment, or

* encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way, or

* knowingly assists illegal aliens due to personal convictions.

[CutePuppy]

AND it is also a felony (or at least it used to be) to assist anyone in this country illegally to get a job...

I think that is very likely the real (though publicly unspoken) reason for many in the productive / investing-in-America class pressing Republican leadership for amnesty - they don't like to be selectively raided by ICE/INS any more than they like to be selectively audited by IRS or selectively subjected to the nuisance or harassment lawsuits.

Doesn't mean they should be accommodated by the amnesty, but that is the real impetus behind the push than having "cheap workforce" because after "undocumented worker" becomes legal and "documented" he stops being really "cheap."