In a previous post, Gull suggested (quasi-tongue in cheekish) several points:

Establish regional offices to register illegal immigrants. Offer a moratorium for employers of illegal immigrants.  Issue interim registration cards to illegal immigrants, allowing them 2-3 years to complete monitored citizenship requirements.  Begin immediately to collect taxes on current incomes.  

What will happen? 

-- Local, state and federal tax bases will rise, in partial compensation for the cost of caring for/educating illegal immigrants and their offspring. 
-- INS employment will expand, including but not limited to bilingual citizens -- who could also be employed to patrol US borders .....
-- More American dollars will remain at home because untaxed income (previously sent "home" to support non-resident families) will be monitored by extensions of Homeland and National Security agencies.
-- Landlords will be required to notify authorities (subject to monumental penalty) if more than 3 persons per bedroom are residing in one dwelling.
-- Driver's license agencies will be required to issue provisional licence to drivers who fail to provide proof of residency and domicile (i.e., social security card, utility bills, tax returns, voter registration, etc.).
-- Tell-tale fancy vehicles (which any of us could afford if we didn't pay taxes) will be legally profiled -- indirectly creating a boon for public transit systems and used car sales, coupled with a decrease in pimping prostitutes and crack house deliveries -- which will benefit everyone. 
-- Yard sales, fruit stands road-side venders and flea markets would require fee-based permits (obtained by proof of social security card, driver license, utility bill, tax return, voter registration, etc.), issued individually to families/site venders.

What Gull does not address is the issue of work permits to allow illegal immigrants to remain -- to perform low-paying jobs which legal citizens shun .....

Herein may lie the rub on the issue of illegal immigration. 

... Flashback to the epoch of slavery and the treatment of non-white immigrants ....   Those who survived did so at the bottom levels of a social and economic caste system. 

If a work permit program is to be a component of immigration reform (and I feel it should), regional agencies must closely monitor the registration system to ensure that work permit holders aren't again victimized (even willingly). 

Paramount will be monitoring employers and related custodial programs -- including but not limited to provisions for housing, health care and education. 

The key, in my assessment?  Holding employers accountable through a strengthened monitoring system.

..........

Afterthought:  Some legislators want to collect back taxes on salaries earned by illegal immigrants.  Phooey. 

There is absolutely no way to monitor the collection of back taxes uniformly and equitably.  No way.  Forgive and forget.  After all, it was our current system that has allowed illegal immigration to flourish. 

Move forward.  Not backward. 

Please.