From Hal Netkin in the L.A. Daily News:

When my Mexican immigrant wife, Ines, and I visited her family in Mexico three years ago, one of my brothers-in-law, Alejandro, and his family thought that because my wife is a naturalized U.S. citizen, that she could petition for their swift legal immigration to the U.S.

U.S. citizens may petition for siblings of any age, but not for the siblings' spouses or children. We agreed to fill out the necessary paperwork to start the petition process for Alejandro (and three of Ines' other siblings) once we returned to California, and Alejandro could later legally petition for his family.

Two months after our return to Van Nuys, Ines was shocked to receive a telephone call from Alejandro in Oxnard, California, working as an ice cream vendor. Alejandro had illegally entered the U.S. for a job, which would allow him to send money home in support of his family. Alejandro's decision not to wait several years for a visa was based on most every Mexican's knowledge that once in the U.S., it is virtually legal to be illegal.

Within a year, two more of my brothers-in-law followed Alejandro's path of illegal entry...