We aren't throwing out our rules and laws, we're reforming them to suit the current situation. So what's your alternative? Even if we completely closed all of the border tomorrow(basically a logistical impossibility) there would still be millions of people here without proper papers. Do you personally really think we're going to round them all up and deport them? And if not what then happens to them? I assume you don't want them to be able to vote, so which other rights do they get? Do we go down the list one by one, checking yes or no on each, and then when we get to the 14th and that hogwash about Equal Protection we just say, 'Hey, that's only for us good people who were lucky enough to be born here! Sure Jimmy has a few DUIs and an anger problem, but he's a full citizen, born and raised, but you, even though you've been a model community member for years, worked hard, never got in any trouble, and cared enough about the American dream and values to come fulfil them, you were born in a shithole country. Eat it.' We betray our own stated values. Yet in the same breath y'all call me un-American.
Border crossing is misdemeanor. Compare to how laws are going with marijuana. In one state you can go in a store and choose any of fifty different strains of legally grown, lab tested buds. You travel a few miles across state lines and that's a misdemeanor. In some states actually, depending on the laws, a felony. You really want to disqualify all hard-working, otherwise law-abiding people from society as second class citizens forever over one misdemeanor? If someone is a legit criminal, deport them, obviously. But most are just paying the penalty for our dysfunctional legislature not ever being able to get anything done.