President Bush is considering allowing illegal immigrants who came to the United States before February 2004 to qualify for guest-worker visas. Those who arrived later would be deported.

But a guest worker program, Briggs said, guarantees wages will never go up, and there is no way American citizens can compete with guest workers.

'They will take over the jobs. The guest workers are tied to the industry. They are tied to the employer,' he said.

Bush last year introduced a plan that would allow undocumented workers to get three-year work visas. They could extend that for another three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit, something John Gay, co-chairman of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, considers absurd.

'It doesn't really serve a purpose,' Gay said. 'You can't take 10 million people out of the economy for a year. Why would you want to do that?'

Instead of all the new reform ideas, Briggs and other experts don't understand why the government doesn't just enforce the existing immigration laws.

On the sidewalks of Las Vegas, a red truck pulls up and a swarm of workers surround it, backpacks in tow. But the employer only wants one today. The rest shuffle back to the corner, knowing there will always be another truck.

They will be back tomorrow, and the day after, fueling their part of the underground economy.

'We all come down here and want to work as an American,' said Antonio Perez Vazquez, 26.

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