Guest worker programs seem to be a step in the right direction.

Good temporary solution. Effective when all jobless Americans are employed. Not before.

Yup. They can pay their own way while they are here and not burden our social services like they currently do.

I don't think this eases illegal immigration. I view this program as being wide open to manipulation by those who will continue to enter the country illegally.

Works fine in most of Europe. Make citizenship available after a certain amount of time, and I'm on board.

We already have a guest worker program, they are just uninvited guests that never leave.

I'm not opposed to foreigners,after all,unless you are a full-blooded American Indian,you or your ancestors came here at some point hoping to build a better life.I believe in giving people a chance-but we have to be careful WHO crosses our borders.If run properly,a "guest worker" program might encourage those who need work to go through the proper channels,and screen out criminals and potential terrorists.Guest Workers would have to be paid the same rate as citizens though,or they will take away the jobs from those who already live here.We don't want to encourage companies to hire cheap,zero-benefit labor!

The most pressing issue within illegal immigration is that of public safety--- the creation of an expanded guest worker program would eradicate much of the challenge we are facing in securing our border. A guest worker program would allow the vast majority of illegal immigrants who come here to work and support their families the opportunity to do so. With the establishment of such a program an effective mechanism must be established to track these individuals, which is of the greatest importance to the safety of the public. Further, a guest worker program would nullify much of the employment-motivated illegal immigration and allow border security agents to focus on those who cross the border with the intent to distribute narcotics or commit other unlawful acts. I agree with magellan on the impracticalities presented by proposals such as mass deportation, incarceration and others--- those are not feasible. A guest worker program is the only solution which addresses the issue of public safety while at the same time minimizing any disruption to our economy.

For national security reasons and for rule of law reasons, we need to bring the 11M illegals in this country out of the shadows. What are the alternatives to a guest worker program? Mass deportation? Incarceration? Neither are feasible, both would entail tremendous tax-payer cost, and both would impact our economy. Unrealistic, unenforced laws that fly in the face of economic realities have simply allowed this problem to get too big to treat through standard law enforcement means. And my personal feeling is that the only way a Guest Worker Program will work is if it's simple to join, there are no legal ramifications against the person that "turns themself in," and there is as little disruption as possible in our economy (and the lives of the immigrants.) Kind of like those "turn in the gun" programs. Once we have a plan to bring people out of the shadows, then we can crank up things like penalties for employers that employ illegals, and penalties for those who choose not to participate in the guest worker program. Until we have a plan to deal with the 11M folks that are already here, it doesn't really matter what we do on the borders.