Agree, but I thought Schumer was more dishonest in that case. That's not to say I'm a McConnell fan. Just look at that abomination of a spending bill that he pushed last week.
I'll give the win to McConnell for not making some staffer run to kinkos to make a prop.
That's a very long border and it will never be easy to secure. "The wall" will be a great start but most illegal immigrants are actually visa overstayers.
I agree, which is why I always thought the 2,000 mile wall or whatever was absurd. A wall and security can help in some spots though.
Also, Trump or the Republicans declaring that we're done with amnesty won't have much weight when the next Democrat takes over. The pendulum swings hard and fast in US politics.
This is a good point, but it also highlights why I don't think deporting DACA recipients right now would have much of a positive effect on future immigration. Like you said, the pendulum swings. As soon as there is a new President, or a new party, every could change.
I think the negative effect of deporting hundreds of thousands of people would outweigh any positive effect that it would have on future illegal immigration. A lot of DACA recipients have families they'd be separated from. Sometimes they have kids, sometimes they are the home's breadwinner, etc. That would wreak havoc that the US would still have to deal with. If my dad was suddenly deported when I was a child, our family would have been absolutely broke. That's bad for everybody, including the tax payers.
They'd also be sent back to places they do not even know. If you left Mexico when you were 4, then you're suddenly sent back to Mexico when you're 20, that borders on cruel to me. You may have no connections, no family, no friends, and no money to live there. You might not even speak Spanish that well. There are certain lines that seem too cruel to cross for a country like America and that seems like one of them.
There's not a perfect answer for what to do with the DACA recipients. Nothing checks all the boxes. I think the main focus should be on figuring out how to prevent the next million illegal immigrants from coming here with children.
Is there even a federal database for state felony convictions? If not, I can imagine that vetting all 1.8 million DACA-eligible people is going to be very costly and very error-prone.
If not, there certainly should be. There's no excuse why this type of thing should not be easy to do at this point. I have a phone in my pocket that can bring up court records, the government should be able to make an easily accessible database with all the relevant information.