That's one thing that a lot of folks don't get. Our political system was designed to encourage all manner of horsetrading--said horsetrading usually resulting in compromise laws that no faction loves, but that all factions can tolerate.
No one will be 100% satisfied or 100% dissatisfied but there is no way in the world the Democrats will allow a compromised Republican Bill out of the Senate no matter how much tougher it gets than the committee version. The Rats read like a book.
I understand horse trading, but no horse trader worth his salt will trade for a horse worse than the one he is trading off. The majority of the plans will not only not fix the problems, they would make them worse. To compromise you must be fairly close on the disputed issues, that is not the case here. One side cannot compromise when the other side is not willing to. Those opposed to the plans to deal with illegals would be more likely to compromise if the border is secured first.
We have to really secure the border from new illegal crossers, then begin to enforce the laws we have now regarding illegals. Then a guest worker plan or something similiar could be worked out if we need workers from another country.
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That's one thing that a lot of folks don't get. Our political system was designed to encourage all manner of horsetrading--said horsetrading usually resulting in compromise laws that no faction loves, but that all factions can tolerate.
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That is true, so those who want illegal immigration cut must decide on their bottom line (that which they must get and that which can be negotiated around).
For me the bottom line is a wall on the southern border. I am willing to accept the current 12 million illegal aliens as a "sunk cost", that does not mean amnesty, it just means no mass deportations, just the current half-hearted enforcement.
I think a wall ("secure our border") can be sold to a large majority of the public. Some of the more "punitive" measures probably cannot be sold to any large portion of the public. The negotiating line should be, build a wall and then (and only then) investigate a guest worker program or other reform.
I also feel that some issue can be made that current policy unfairly favors Mexico and Southern America. There are lots of Chinese, Indians and people from new Europe who would love to come to the United States. They also would possibly have a higher skill set that our advanced economy needs.
Current policy is about importing poor people with low skills into an information age, welfare state. That does not sound like a good mix.