What's so bad about amnesty?

[revots33]

So GWB wants to give the illegal aliens that are here amnesty. But he can't use the word amnesty so he has to invent some hoops for them to jump through first so he can call it something else.

But honestly, what's so bad about amnesty anyway? As the prez has said we can't round up and ship 12 million people out of the country. They are already here, working, their kids are in our kids' schools. Why should I want to pull some third grader in the Bronx out of her classroom and ship her back to a life of poverty, when her parents are here working, often doing jobs Americans won't, and generally making themselves as much or more useful than many native-born US citizens? Many of them are even paying social security taxes (through fake SS cards they had to get, mainly so their employers could cover their asses).

Anyway, I'm wondering how much of the outcry against amnesty has to do with actual, concrete negative consequences this would have on current citizens? (And what are those negative consequences?) And how much is simply a black & white view that lawbreakers, regardless of any other circumstances, need to be punished? And how much of the outcry boils down to simple xenophobia or racism?