i've been clear repeatedly: i think the focus should be to go after businesses that use illegal labour, not to go after the labourers, themselves. the longstanding republican approach, which trump is just amplifying, is a type of supply-side economics: they argue that by controlling the supply of labour, they can reduce the demand for it. this is incoherent everywhere it is applied, but they do it all of the time...

what the policy should be focused on is reducing demand, not controlling the supply. what you need to do with this is to make sure that the laws that exist are enforced and that companies that hire illegal workers are severely prosecuted for it.

if the demand for cheap labour were to dry up, the movement across the border would stop, too.

that said, you can't expect a government to do that on it's own, because a government always operates in the interests of capital - unless a popular uprising exists. the pre-requisite to shutting down businesses that hire illegal workers is a strong workers movement. but, the unions have all been brought along side the interests of capital, so you don't get any meaningful action. and, sadly, the hierarchy is designed so that even unionized workers can take advantage of cheap strawberries.

so, instead of the necessary worker movement, you just get right-wing politicians taking advantage of the situation to gain votes to get into power.

the failure is at the worker level - workers need to organize to ensure that the standards they've fought for are actually being observed for everybody.

in the short term, forcing people to go through a checkpoint at least ensures we know they're here, which makes it easier to track employers that want to exploit them - and everybody else.