How would you fix the illegal immigration problem in the US?

Its been a hot issue for a long time, and looks like it could be a major debate point in the coming election cycle. The issue is basically that millions of illegal immigrants from South and Central America (mostly, but some from other parts of the world) are flooding the US and over-running it with cheap labor whilst putting strain on our various public services.

The idea is basically that they are filling our ER’s with people who will never pay their bill, they’re not paying taxes, their kids are flooding our schools/colleges, they’re prone to crime, etc, etc, etc. Now some of this stuff is just blatant nonsense. For example, so long as they’re being paid above table (even if its with a fake ID or as a known illegal), income tax is still taken out of every paycheck.

There’s the recent story of the college aged girl in Georgia who was brought here illegally by her parents as a child. She was a year from finishing her degree when a minor traffic violation almost got her deported (she received a one year reprieve so she could finish her education). Anti-illegal-immigration people were outraged she wasn’t thrown out and upset she was milking the system…....... ignoring that she was actually paying out of state tuition (which more than covers the cost of her actual education) and is an obviously smart person who wanted to earn a degree and then work here in the US ..... we should be so lucky to have smart people come here and live/work here.

It also seems a bit of history repeating, since just about every ethnic group that came in waves faced this type of scrutiny (the irish, germans, italians, etc)... Which makes it all the more ironic since some of the most vocal proponents of laying the hammer down on illegal immigration, probably have illegal immigrant great grand parents (or just regular grand parents).... Heck my own great grandparents illegally immigrated from Denmark, via Canada back in the early 1900’s.

Its an ugly debate, and a messy one to be sure. How would YOU fix it?