I had an idea I wanted to share:
Employers use the easily exploitable community of illegal immigrants to flaunt labor laws, increasing their own efficiency through illegally substandard wages, benefits, and conditions. The government compliments the practice by hunting and deporting illegal immigrants, keeping the population powerless and vulnerable.
So, let's offer green cards (or fast-track immigration applications) for anyone who provides evidence or testimony supporting enforcement of labor law. By creating both an incentive for this group to report labor uses and a safety net for those who come forward, we can turn this exploitable and exploited population against crooked businessmen.
Of course, the whole concept of making people illegal is abhorrent and our entire immigration enforcement policy needs to be reworked. Etc, etc, I know and I agree.
Part of this approach that I like is that it is something that the president could very easily implement himself without congressional support. He could, at the very least, direct the justice department to offer immunity on immigration charges in exchange for evidence and testimony, as well as writing recommendation letters for immigration applications.
After all, why can't the president act unilaterally for good, as well as for evil?