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For example: The goal is good citizens, not deporting everyone.

I understand your point, but the problem is that the economic and cultural environment is vastly different than what it was during the prior waves of immigration.

Prior immigrants knew that they had to either work, or starve. That led to the development of a tremendous work ethic and commitment to succeeding in the country. Unfortunately, the modern welfare state and bleeding heart leftists have destroyed those incentives. Prior waves of immigrants usually were not led by single mothers with children, who are incapable of supporting them and rely on us taxpayers to do so.

The second problem is that technology has greatly reduced the percentage of jobs requiring unskilled or low-skilled labor. That means that those waves of immigrants are competing with Americans in those same categories, pushing down those wages. A lot of those jobs don't pay very much precisely because companies have not been forced to increase their wages because of the availability of cheap labor inflating the labor pool.

The third problem is cultural. Prior waves of immigration were met by a shared cultural view of America as a good, positive country. Republicans and Democrats all agreed on that, and patriotism was taught from a very young age. Now, we are getting waves of immigrants met by a leftist oriented educational establishment that actually teaches anti-American values. It teaches them that they should not assimilate, and rather should maintain their cultural values, or even impose them on the rest of us. That is a recipe for national disaster.

I understand your point, but the problem is

We need to keep our eyes on the major goals. That is not to say there are not minor goals to achieve the major goals. You have stated the problems, now what are the solutions?

I object to the idea of deporting everyone. That is a simple answer to a complex problem. Yep, get rid of the obvious bad ones which Trump is doing. Prevent the bad ones from entry.

But how do we test for good citizens? Maybe foreign and domestic?

How do we make good citizens? That is the goal whether foreign or domestic.

What is a good citizen?

We can’t be all fence (conservatives) anymore that be all gate (liberals).

Gen 3:24 After sending them out, the LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

There is much wisdom in the Bible. Note the above. Some eyes go to the fence. Now that is an impenetrable fence - angels. Ain’t nobody getting through that fence.

Some eyes might go to the gate. Some think the purpose of a gate is to keep people out and that is true to a degree. But another purpose is to let people in. A gate is not a fence.

A gate lets qualified people in. What is that quality? There are some good aspects of catch and release. If they have been here 10 years, not caused problems, aren’t on public welfare etc. Many potential good citizens are currently stuck with the current gate.

Further thinking: Who is the gate in the above verse? What is the criteria for entry? What is the gate giving access to? It is not the garden of Eden.

Might be a good model of fences and gates to follow in our immigration situation although it will not be perfect in our world.

Thank goodness God is not all fence.