I doubt Trump can pass his immigration plan. The two sides are so far apart no compromise may be possible. So, let’s have an election, in November, with this as the leading issue.
Trump realizes that the Dreamers are not going to be deported. Most Americans are too soft-hearted to ever let that happen. So Trump will simply allow them to remain in their current status until after the election. The INS has lots and lots of other things to attend to – millions of them, in fact. There’s enough of a backlog in other areas (overstayed visas, etc.) to keep them busy.
Immigration hawks have to face political reality. They can’t achieve all of their goals at one fell swoop. I’d like to see reduced legal immigration, but that can wait. Take what we can get, especially if it’s the end of uncontrolled chain migration.
But let’s do it after the election. The 2018 election shouldn’t be about Trump. It should be about immigration. If that is the case, we’ll do just fine.
As to the wall, what is a wall, after all? Walls need not be entirely structures of concrete and steel. The Berlin Wall was as real as walls get, but there wasn’t a wall all round. Barriers need not be walls. Mine fields are not walls, for instance.
In the English language, words can have flexible, even fanciful, meanings.
