Republican base. This leads us to one likely conclusion- the people who run the Republican Party are not serious about the issue of illegal workers in the US. In fact, illegal workers are a profit center for many of the deep pocket supporters of the national Republican Party. But the Republicans can't just come out and say this since their electoral base contains large numbers of people opposed to illegal immigration or who are just plain racist. Thus they come up with strategies doomed to (planned) failure, like the Tancredo "illegals are felons" nonsense. Illegal (hint, hint) aliens are already here illegally. Does anyone with a functioning brain think that making them "more" illegal will deter the flow north? This is pandering and not a serious attempt to resolve the problem. The only two things which might do so are 1) sanctions against employers that include felony convictions, jail time, and seizure of property 2) virtual fortification of the border (coupled with denial of temporary entry rights to people who have a high likelihood of overstays). Republicans and many Democrats will never do the first and no one will do the second. Allowing and even inviting illegal aliens has many negative consequences (which are winked at by the current administration). First, for an administration that constantly bleats about national security, how secure can we be if we have no idea who is coming into or who is in our country? Forget the Mexican who comes here to hang sheetrock and