Oh, wait. Different subject. leaving it up anyway since DBF mentioned DREAMers in passing.
There's no easy way to do it if you're here illegally. It's quite a conundrum for the DREAMers.
Take the guy in Detroit, for instance. Brought here at 10, been here for 30, married with children, pays taxes, holds a job and has no criminal record. There is no easy path to citizenship for him since he came here illegally to begin with. He would have to leave the country and then apply for re-entry, and what really sucks is that there are no guarantees he would receive it, even given his circumstances, as he would have a black mark for entering illegally to begin with.
Now, since he was deported, he'll have to wait 10 years before he's even allowed to re-apply, and even processing and approving the application can easily take a decade or longer after that, assuming he even gets approval with his deportation. If he's extremely lucky, he may be back in time to see the birth of his grandchildren. Odds are he never makes it back at all, as we are very selective about who we allow in.
It helps no one to deport this guy. For all intents and purposes, this is his home. The family is losing a breadwinner, a wife is losing a husband, the kids are losing a dad. He has a life here. What does he have to return to in his home country?
