Sure...and one could rightly say that conservatives played into their hands.
But at the same time, border control IS a serious issue and illegal immigration IS a big issue as well. The administration could not ignore those issues whether the Liberals were carping on them or not.
It would have been nice to have crews appearing on the border with building materials over the course of several years and slowly beefing up the infrastructure and personnel levels, but we live in a real world and know that isn't going to happen either. We might build a few sections of roads and fences, and the MSM would have been right on that like stink on $hit.
The thing is-this was going to come to a head NO MATTER WHAT. No matter how you approach it, and no matter how you address it, the same components to the problem need to be solved.
Most of us agree that amnesty is not a good idea. And we would also agree that putting in place bureaucracy, money, infrastructure and manpower to do a mass deportation of millions of people is not only not a trivial task, but is politically very difficult, if not impossible in this atmosphere.
I readily admit I am baffled by the Administration's handling of this issue. From the standpoint of looking at illegals as future voters, that is a loser and they have to know that. I am not all that politically sharp, but hey, they aren't going to be Republicans if they do vote. And we will piss off a lot of Hispanics who came here illegally (though not all...there is power in numbers, after all)
If one looks at it from a security perspective only, and if you accept the premise that a mass deportation of millions into perhaps even into eight figures worth is impossible or impractical (I readily admit that premise may be false) then you are left with very few options. You cannot hunt them down and kill them on the spot. You cannot MAKE them citizens out of hand. You HAVE to figure out some way to deal with them.
My view on a fence, as an ex-sailor, is like that of a ship with a hole below the waterline. Pumping out water is fine and even necessary to buy time. But you cannot, and will not avoid sinking UNLESS YOU PLUG THE HOLE beneath the border...oops...waterline. I think most of us in this forum would agree on that. The question is, how do we get the President and our elected officials to see it the same way?
I take my hat off to the President for even letting the issue cross his lips. None of the previous ones have even done that. Of course, none of them inhabited the Oval Office on 9/11 either, so they didn't really have to.
Oops. Fixed it to anyone who picked that up...:)
In New Mexico, around the Las Cruces area, the rodes formed natural choke points, and that is where the border patrol stations are located.
Our horse ranch was located about two miles South of the border patrol station, and that put us in a rather interesting situation.
The "Coyotes" would drop the illegal aliens off at my property and have them hike cross-country around the border patrol station. On the other side, they would join together and continue on their trip.
Having served with the U.S. Army for 20 years, and often performing the duty of guarding the borders of other countries, it was rather natural that my wife and I would protect our own home from illegal invasion.
My wife and I often captured illegal aliens and held them until the border patrol could arrive and take them into custody.
This citizen took the issue very seriously!
I think the horse is already out of the barn. No matter how the details turn out, legalizing millions of illegal immigrants and wiping clean their crimes as if they didn't happen, is going to be bad for conservatives.
The first order of business is the rule of law and the Senate took a pass.