As Congress debates immigration reforms, some experts say the most extreme proposal -- deporting millions of illegal immigrants -- would be a huge legal and logistical morass, and ruinously expensive, too.

...the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington, has put the cost at $215 billion over five years.

...Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., author of a get-tough immigration bill, said the government has no intention of trying to deport 12 million people.

"Nobody is seriously proposing that, because that will require a massive infiltration of law enforcement officials and will disrupt the economy," said Sensenbrenner told CBS' "Face the Nation" this week.

--AP, April 7

[Republican congressman J. D.] Hayworth [of Arizona] recently published a book, "Whatever It Takes" (Regnery Publishing, 2006), in which he advocates enlisting agencies like the Internal Revenue Service to find illegal immigrants; arresting and deporting them all; deploying military troops on the southern border; and temporarily suspending legal immigration from Mexico.

--New York Times, April 17