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I've lived in six different countries (including the US) and in every other country there is no discussion around illegal immigrants - they are deported. It's not even a political issue. Having secure borders is a norm.
Then I get to the US and there is this weird political debate around it. For someone reason it's "bad" to refer to people who enter illegally as "illegal immigrants". People argue that people who entered illegally should be legalized.
I find it really odd.
Many of us have sympathy for people who came in under this system who generally just want to work their asses off doing jobs no American wants to do.
We're also talking about kids brought here as toddlers. Many of us think deporting these people is particularly cruel, as their home country is completely foreign to them.
Do you mean official US government policy? Do you have a source for that claim?
How about undocumented immigrants openly hanging outside of Home Depot waiting for work, while everyone looks the other way because contractors rely on them? That feels like unofficial policy to me.
The fact that the US has a bad track record on enforcing immigration law isn't proof of a "wink wink" policy, especially if you considering huge proportion of Congress doesn't want immigration laws enforced.
Also you're crazy if you think most Republicans in Congress actually want immigration laws enforced. They like the cheap labor. They just want to use it as a wedge issue every 2-4 years.
But there are lots of explanations beyond "wink-wink" for not enforcing immigration policies. The Democrats want more immigration, even if it's illegal, so where they have the power (say SF) they don't enforce them.
That doesn't mean the Democrats are happy with the status quo of a large illegal immigrant working popoulation.
> Also you're crazy if you think most Republicans in Congress actually want immigration laws enforced.
Really? So place like Texas that are trying to stop illegal immigration at the border but being blocked really want illegal immigration? I don't think so.
Canada loved to mock the US's treatment of illegal aliens (for political gain) until they started pouring into Canada. Even with those seeking asylum, Canada was pushing the "third country" agreement that people need to seek asylum in the first country they enter, not pass through the US and come to Canada. For illegal aliens, Canada is deporting record numbers,[2] but Canadians are pretty united in "you can't enter Canada illegally".
I lived in Asia and it was similar. Very strict tracking of legal immigrants and a robust process for removing people staying illegally.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Office_hostile_environmen...
[2]https://www.newcanadianmedia.ca/alarming-number-of-deportati...
republicans support setting H1B visas at the same standard it was created for in 1991.
I support that. I support linking the standards of minimum compensation to inflation or some automatically moving metric. we already have several higher criteria work visas, H1B's is just the most popular.
republicans support our education visas turning into residency or work visas more seamlessly.
I support that.
the party doesn't support the empathy arguments for people that are here without a visa. I think something more holistic should be considered than mass deportation.
Its important to add nuance. We have many categories of immigration and many populations. As well as a porous mismanaged border.
If Republican voters supported more immigration, it could happen. They just don’t. And calling people brought here as children by their parents criminals is ridiculous.