Agree. Include to that confiscation of business for repeat offense and use of proceeds to finance illegal immigration enforcement costs.

Normal repeat offender always get the more after the first time and so should they.

Given the other comments for this option (i.e. fining those who employ illegal labor) to mitigate the illegal alien problem in the United States, I doubt my comment will be taken enthusiastically; however, when the issue is analyzed fully, punishing employers is basically a red herring. Assuming an efficient labor market, an efficient minimum wage, and a willing/able legal labor force, reasonable (and perhaps existing) penalties should suffice to keep employers from seeking illegal labor at below true market value. In other words (as I've stated in other related comments), employers would prefer legal over illegal labor (all other things being equal). Americans cannot expect to force business to employ at higher than value wages without creating a substantial black-market economy. Only by eliminating the excess mandatory wage and encouraging legal labor to take these jobs (by lowering public assistance and eliminating the entitlement mentality) will this black-market economy become immaterial. The bottom line is that while some penalties are needed to avoid abuse (i.e. not a single star), business will ultimately do the right thing if other necessary policies are implemented.

It is a good idea, but you have to have a government that is willing to enforce this. When you have people like Teddy Kennedy calling it the new civil rights movement, and the President ignoring the overwhelming opposition to illegals, good luck.

our jails and prisons are already overflowing and this solution costs us more money because then we have to support those incarcerated.

I like this idea. Undocumented dumbasses in sh!tbox trucks have been a plague upon satellite. Retailers now pay less because some idiot will take less, and the quality of their work stinks, so don't give me that high and mighty "American workers are lazy" bit. I make 60-80% more than the average clown out there, thank GOD, and do you know why? I do it right and don't get callbacks. I also fix the other idiots messes. This is just how my job has been effected by this labor issue, but the construction guys are getting it worse than me. Employers need to start doing things right and quit cutting corners to try to save a buck. I have never hired an illegal and I don't plan on starting any time soon.

It won't happen as drummond has noted.

As I have said before,if they can't get any work after sneaking over the border,they'll have to go back.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

This wouldn't end anything. There is an underground economy in the US that guarantees these people employment. A friend of mine on the East Coast has a large number of rental properties. He's well capitalized and looking to expand his holdings. He buys properties and "recruits" carpenters and craftsmen from that end of town where you might see an illegal alien or two, hires them for the day for a certain "cash" wage, drives his "employees" to the site where they work. For the day. For a buck. And they do beautiful work, and they are paid at the end of the day. My friend has no paperwork to do, except his taxes on April 15th. He has no employees, no OSHA, no FICA, no Workmen's Comp, no Unemployment Insurance premium, no fringe benefits to track, etc. Nobody is blowing him in. He's not blowing in any illegals. Why would he? It's lucrative for both parties. He COULD hire out of work Americans. Who take longer to do the same work, and aren't as capable, and don't do the quality of work or appreciate the work like the illegals do. And file all the necessary paperwork, forms, get a DBA, and comply with the law, I guess. He's not afraid of getting caught. Send him to jail? There are thousands of guys doing this today, every day. Are we catching many? Would upping the penalty from a fine to jail time increase our arrest rate? Our conviction rate? No, they'd get smarter at avoiding detection because the stakes of the game have been raised. What he is doing is wrong. He's breaking the law. But the government agency failing to fulfill its responsibilities is the real enemy.

Would end illegal immigration tomorrow. But that won't happen. Too much money involved, and too much dependency on cheap labor. Pols will rant, but they won't act.