And congressmen are twisting themselves into human contortionist knots to avoid acknowledging the elephant in the room which is THE WALL. THE WALL is the linchpin of any immigration bill, and without it, it's more of the same old, same old.
Nary a soul in congress is actively championing THE WALL, a shirking from which any sensible person may conclude that the cheap labor oligarchs have the congress by the balls.
No, they have them by the wallet. An even more sensitive place and more fitting, since the number of congress critters with cajones would probably not fill up a booth in a Denny's.
“Either of these bills might as well have been written by Obama himself.”
Uh, you think Obama would have allocated tens of millions for the wall, passed Kate’s Law, withheld funds from sanctuary cities, ended the diversity visa lottery and chain migration (thus lowering and improving legal immigration), criminalized visa overstays, and denied the “Dreamers” a pathway to citizenship? This is what Goodlatte’s bill did. And Trump should have at least been on record fighting specifically for it, rather than the squishy Ryan bill.
If anyone wants to read more about the exact details of both bills, the excellent NumbersUSA site (which is on our side) has a great chart:
https://www.numbersusa.com/sites/default/files/public/assets/resources/files/SAFAvsRyanAmnesty_15JUN18.pdf.