As an employer that hires only legal workers I agree that the laws and fines on the books to deal with the hiring of illegals needs to be enforced.
I run an above board operation totally by the book and have to compete with others who gain a huge advantage by employing illegals at half the cost. Local, state and federal governments do little to enforce EXISTING laws. In a very real sense I get punished for doing the right thing.
Another thing to consider is that the abundance of cheap illegal labor has decimated the wage base of most blue collar work.The illegals wages have not risen to that of legal workers but brought the legals down to their rate of pay. I see it in my industry and have heard first hand from numerous construction related workers. Good for the economy my ass.
I would bet the farm that if illegals were teaching, on the police force, in the fire department or almost any other white collar job in the same numbers that are in the labor market the laws would be enforced to the letter. Very easy for those with a “protected” work environment to get all high and mighty about the plight of the illegal while not giving a rats ass that they have destroyed the earning power of millions.
I would just love to hear the reaction of union employees if their employers hired a bunch of illegals then dropped everyones pay to their level.