Remember that well over 50% of the World would change places with Americans anytime when it comes to wealth, freedom, happiness, etc. - why do you think we have an immigration problem :)

U.S.A. U.S.A. !

Spot on!

Great article, CW!

One thought: Do the Republicans actually WANT to fix the immigration problem; thus losing one of the best fear-mongering campaigning tools that they have come to rely so heavily on?

They have pretty much lost the use of the "gay marriage" argument as a way to get votes. This leaves blaming the poor for the middle class' financial woes, abortion, and illegals taking their jobs as their only distractions/vote-getters.

God forbid any of them actually try to run on their legislative records! This is why they couldn't heed the advice of the party's post-mortem report: if they don't attack these things they'd have absolutely nothing to campaign with!

And this is why we can't have nice things.

Ouch. Of course not. From the 2016 Democratic Platform:

The immigration bureaucracy is full of backlogs that result in U.S. citizens waiting for decades...

Democrats believe we need to urgently fix our broken immigration system...

As CW says in his piece:

But because these are immigrants (who can't yet vote), there is little political will in Washington to change things any time soon. It would require a massive infusion of resources to even begin to attack this monstrous backlog, and neither Democrats nor Republicans are willing to even broach the subject in Congress.

In other words, Reps won't bring it up because they don't want to do anything, and Dems won't bring it up because Reps won't support anything that isn't accompanied by spiky fences with nuclear triggers. Or that costs anything.

Has anyone worked out the cost of a 2,000 mile-long (15-25 ft high) wall with security sensors every few feet? Just wondering.

The point of CW's article isn't that Democrats are loathe to change the system, it's that Trump could change the debate about immigration by simply supporting the huge cost of fixing it at the bureaucratic level. That would be a HUGE policy change for Republicans, and a total game changer for the immigration debate.

But, as CW also points out, it could probably never happen. This week has shown that Immigration reform is a third rail for Trump. So we've finally found the one thing his followers won't let him get away with - common sense!

Okay, just finished reading the piece.

Why are Democrats so averse to talking about this?

Or, was it meant as something other than advice. :)

Point 1 [CW Spoiling the idea for Trump]: You are probably right. For both your reasons.

Point 2: I'm obviously not making my self clear. Mea culpa. My point was not about the engineers and biologists waiting in line in Silicon Valley, my point was the second wave - they are the uneducated who came across the border as kids or teenagers - how do they get back in?

The missing word there, Neilm, is "too". Is an idea that originates from a liberal too toxic for Trump? Trump does have a unique ability to sell liberal ideas to ostensibly conservative audiences. His opposition to TPP is rooted in populism, not conservativism, which is in favor of 'free trade' agreements.

I'm not as sure as Chris is that the hard right would buy his proposal as is, and not still insist on a "touchback" policy that would require potential citizen-candidates to return to their home countries in order to apply. On the other hand, he might have a point about illegals so desperate for a solution that they'd accept a bad deal rather than no deal at all.

Those most annoyed by such a policy would be those immigrants who are fleeing from a terrible situation back home, and highly educated immigrants who simply wish to stay to pursue their dreams. After all, 51% of all illegal immigrants are non-mexicans, many of whom overstayed their visas. For instance, New Jersey has an almost equal percentage of illegal immigrants (8%) as California (9%) or Texas (9%).

Source: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/19/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/

Some perspective, I think is required in the argument, which largely stems from the fevered imaginations of the alt-right. 11.3 million people is about the same number of people who watched the Olympics on NBC's online streaming service this last week. More than twice as many watched Taylor Swift win a Grammy this year.

To put it a different way, illegals make up 5.1% of the labor force, or about one-fifth the number of people who do volunteer work every day.

2. Many illegal immigrants don't have the qualifications to pass the immigration barriers, so they would be processed quicker, but be refused at the end.

See "educated illegals", above. I'm just not sure that statement has any basis. Apple, Google, and Microsoft would love a streamlined immigration system, for sure.

Semi citizens will reproduce on US soil and their offspring will be US citizens who will vote in 18 years.....

Gratitude among the semi-citizens will be fleeting. Their children will work hard to get full citizenship for mom and dad.

House of Reps thinks 2 years ahead.. Nativist pressure is here and now.

The safe move for a typical Red Rep is to build the wall higher and with more razor wire. Not exactly divide and conquer, more like divide and retire in comfort. A primary challenge is a real bitch.

This IS gonna be interesting. He tried shifting a bit last week and then scrambled back to his safe-space of no-mercy. Evidently Bannon or Conway has convinced him he needs to moderate his rhetoric on the topic to have any shot at a win so he's going to try again. How long will his newly-minted position last? Will anyone buy it while it does?

Ah, you mean 'professional Left', don'tcha? :)

That was a little joke.

Couple of points:

1. Haven't you, by being perceived as a 'Liberal' to have come up with the idea, made it toxic for Trump to touch?

2. Many illegal immigrants don't have the qualifications to pass the immigration barriers, so they would be processed quicker, but be refused at the end.