As I implied, better to bite the bullet now and fix it, than to continue on a path so clearly precipitous. But that's my opinion and you are free to your own.
I don't completely agree with either of you's guys, but this statement is just. plain. wrong!
"Illegal" is "illegal" until the next law is passed. It was illegal two years ago for me to deduct my state sales taxes from my federal income tax. Now it is legal.
The Congress is making law EXACTLY like the founding fathers intended, for better or worse. The House is supposed to act rapidly according to the wishes of the majority, and the Senate is supposed to put the brakes on that populism and have a lengthy debate.
And the closed loop works, too. Senate proposed something that was unacceptable to the House, and the idea fizzled. For now.
If Congress, together, decides to grant these mexican criminals amnesty, for example, they will, overnight, be LEGAL IMMIGRANTS----and you will have no argument to undo that.
Sad to say, but that is what could happen tomorrow or next year. So I think your arguments to congresscritters would have more weight if you'd consider that from THEIR perspective, "ILLEGAL" is up to "them."
Congresscritters are thinking about what happens 1 and 2 years out after they act, at most. There is no sense of urgency to close the border because, with much less shooting and concrete pouring and real decision making that a wall requires, they think they've got an easier way to fix it with a stroke of the pen.
The "enforce current laws" argument simply does not comprehend the transient reality of what is, or is not, "illegal."