I recognize that my position appears to be heartless, but I'll try to lay it out politely.

Illegally entering this country (and remaining) is a crime, yet our government has (mostly) turned a blind eye toward it for generations, so the effort to clean it up has increased exponentially to the point where the notion of "fixing it" doesn't include actual enforcement of our existing immigration laws because that would be "too hard." Enforcement of laws prohibiting employment of illegals is limited, and stopping the coyotes who bring people across the southern borders doesn't appear to be a priority.

Under ideal conditions, legal immigration has the goal of allowing people in who bring a skill that contributes to the betterment of the nation. Most countries operate this way, and most other countries will not hesitate to provide a free ride to the nearest international airport when a guest is found to be out of compliance with their paperwork. Try overstaying a visa in Australia, China, Brazil, or India. Look at how Mexico deals with people entering illegally, or how hard it is to actually get a visa to get in to Russia or Saudi Arabia. We think of ourselves as the greatest country in the world yet our standards for adding to the citizenry are extremely low. We're getting the dregs through illegal immigrants from these other countries, not their best and brightest.

Taken in that context, the fact that we as a nation seem willing to just take on millions of unskilled laborers is staggering. Putting that many people "on the books" might--maybe-- have a positive impact with regards to taxes, but many of those folks might not make enough to actually contribute more to the coffers than they consume. There will be a huge cost in terms of Social Security because the people amnesty'd in could wind up eligible for benefits without having paid in proportionally. Someone has to foot that bill if there is any hope of keeping SS solvent.

The other side of this is employment. There's no doubt that a LOT of illegals are gainfully employed, and they're employed because they work cheap because employers don't have to pay taxes. Once they're legally in the country on the path to citizenship, they have to be paid on the books, taxes filed, etc. From an employer's perspective, who is the more attractive employee--one who comes from another country & culture and speaks a different language, or one who was born here and fluently speaks English? Are you going to take someone who is clearly a legal citizen, or go through the hassle of I-9 documentation and the inherent INS audits that result? In a worst case scenario where employers forgo those who were amnesty'd, now we've got a bunch of unemployed immigrants, which violates the terms of their visa or green card, and now they need to be deported--unless we just continue to ignore the problem. Allowing the unemployed to stay has an impact on crime rates, which then has an impact on jail populations. No matter how you look at it, there is a tangible financial cost to this country.

As to your question "What about the children?" This is where the "heartlessness" appears, but it's a very easy solution. Send them back with the parents. If the child was born outside of the US they'll be eligible to petition for legal re-entry when they reach the appropriate age, regardless of if they arrived with a parent or on their own. If they were born in the US they have citizenship under our current laws, and can either stay with a guardian who legally resides in the US, or can return to the US upon reaching adulthood or are recognized as an emancipated minor. But that argument shouldn't even be central to the discussion of deportation, since estimates put the proportion of illegals with children under 18 at about 1/3 the total of the number of illegal residents.

If a single parent winds up in jail due to crime, the child either winds up with a relative or becomes a ward of the state, but for some reason we treat immigration lawbreakers differently than offenders of every single other crime, and it costs this country an untold amount of money.

It's not an easy problem to deal with because the can has been kicked down the road for so long, but unless we start to do something that demonstrates enforcement we will see the rivers of illegals continue to flow.