There are two small problems I have with this world-view.Doesn't matter. Make it 1/100th as shitty to live here as it is to live where they came front when previously it was 1/10000th as shitty to live here, a lot less people are going to stop bothering to come. It attacks the problem from both angles. It demotivates illegal immigrants from coming here in the first place and motivates illegals to become legal citizens. Both are needed to truly solve the problem.
And? If it's no worse for the now legal immigrants than it is for us but it's monumentally more shitty for the illegal immigrants, that solves the issue. "Easy access" means there isn't a metric ton of laws and regulations preventing it. "Easy access" means the now legal immigrants have to get off of their butts and earn a living like everybody else rather than leeching off the country and contributing nothing. It puts legal immigrants on an even playing field with natural born American citizens while putting illegal immigrants down as low as possible.
Simple checkups that take all of 10 seconds to do. It's called an ID card/driver's license. The thing legal citizens are able to easily get. It's not even the authorities that actually need to know the difference anyway with anything I proposed.
You want to rent an apartment? Oh, you're illegal? Denied.
You want to buy a house? Oh, you're illegal? Denied.
You want to get a job? Oh, you're illegal? Denied.
You want health insurance and access to medical services? Oh, you're illegal? Denied.
You want government programs to help pull you out of poverty? On, you're illegal? Denied.
Then the illegals look and see:
You want to rent an apartment? Oh, you're legal? When can you move in?
You want to buy a house? Oh, you're legal? The place is yours!
You want to get a job? Oh, you're legal? Welcome aboard!
You want health insurance and access to medical services? Oh, you're legal? Sure!
You want government programs to help pull you out of poverty? On, you're legal? Here you go!
...and as a result the illegals start thinking being legal is a good idea.
If they don't want to be arrested for aiding and abetting criminals, they won't aid illegal immigrants for any reason.
There's zero cruel about what I've proposed. All that I've proposed is not allowing illegal immigrants to benefit from living in the United States. I'm not saying go out and form lynch mobs or beating illegal immigrants in the streets or anything, just make it so they don't get anything out of living here.
There's simply too many illegal immigrants to do what we should be doing, throwing them in jail. If people want to oppose simply not permitting people who are committing a crime by illegally crossing the border to get anything out of living in America well, go for it. Everybody with a slight bit of sense will laugh themselves sick as the ones who oppose make fools of themselves opposing "cruel" measures that aren't cruel in the least.
And? Obviously the punishments aren't strict enough if they keep hiring illegals anyway.
Businesses that are able to are already outsourcing every job they possibly can to other countries where they can pay workers a pittance. It wouldn't change a thing. Businesses going elsewhere for their workers is another issue entirely.
As I already mentioned it would easily pay for itself. By making immigrating legal fast and easy, the deluge of now legal immigrants will now have to pay taxes. Those taxes will cover the cost of "the shittiness" as you insist on calling it and then some.
It's not that the answer isn't right in front of everybody's faces, it's that nobody in power cares to actually solve the problem. Meanwhile there's people out there that somehow think it's "cruel" to simply prevent criminals from being able to benefit from their crime and encouraging them to instead do it the perfectly legal way.
1) Crossing the border illegally is a crime, yes, but it is a misdemeanor, meaning that being an illegal alien in the U.S. is being a criminal on the same level as someone who litters or jaywalks, not someone who has committed a felony. Hell, violent crime rates are actually lower among undocumented immigrants than they are in the general American population.
2) The American economy would need to be completely overhauled from the ground up because it is currently configured to REQUIRE undocumented immigrants to function. Removal of these folks would, just as an example, cause food prices to triple in the U.S. (and the average U.S. citizen already has trouble with living barely from paycheck to paycheck as it is). Just look at the unholy mess Florida has economically put itself into with its anti-immigrant stance. They are losing millions every day from their economy as the undocumented workers have fled the region. The same thing happened in Alabama in 2011 and the state was forced to quietly drop the anti-immigrant legislation in order to prevent the economic collapse of the state (and given just how crappy Alabama's economic conditions already are in comparison to the other states, that should tell you something on just how bad it got).
So, undocumented immigrants are NOT a horde of murdering, drug-carrying, vicious invaders and the U.S. brings them in in order to keep economically going. The first half seems to be more of a racism problem amplified by folks that believe in the "great replacement theory" and the second is a problem that isn't going to be solved by legislation because trying to change it via the law would result in a total economic collapse of the nation. Given these realities, I have to disagree with your proposed solution.