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Just go after American farm owners who pay illegals American money to work for them.
You don't even need to deport them, make it impossible for them to work, make them poorer in America than they are in Mexico, that will solve this permanently.
If you aren't targeting the employers of illegal immigrants, you aren't serious about immigration. If you aren't pushing e-verify, you aren't serious about immigration. If Trump EXPLICITLY says he's not enforcing immigration against farms and hotels, it's clear he's not serious about immigration.
Go after our agricultural industry and significantly increase food prices? What political benefit does that have?
Most in the Republican party don't actually care about getting rid of all illegal immigration. They care about progressives and democrats giving the entire planet a green light to migrate here.
Pause for a moment and try to disabuse yourself of the literalness of the argument you hold yourself to. Nobody who runs the country actually thinks they can get rid of all illegals and survive it politically, but if we can project an image that says "We will deport you if you come or stay here illegally." then the likelihood of people trying to come here illegally plummets. This is far more preferable than quickly creating or using a system that the left will then take and turn into an entry permission slip for millions of illegals, like they already have. If Dems and Republicans want to re-implement something like that, then ok, but it will fuck with the optics and people will flood the border, and the media will report on the humanitarian crisis, and Democrats will adopt policy to allow more people in than what was agreed to. Overall, you want to perfect or streamline something that is ripe for left wing overreach. We know this because we just got out of an admin that did it.
I actually agree with most of what you wrote but projecting an image of:
"If you come here, you won't make any money because every farmer/hotel/roofing company will be too scared to even talk to you, let alone give you american dollars in exchange for your time. You have more economic opportunities in Mexico than you ever will here."
Would be even more effective. In the current version if you can get to Texas/Florida/California and find a farm to work for, you know you're pretty safe.
Sure but then doing dumb shit that degrades personal liberty and stretches norms about acceptable government force isn't worth the marginal benefit of deporting a small % of illegals? That's a horrible trade.
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Given everything you say is true, who are my alternatives? Where is my better option?
I don't see one, and so I won't let perfect be the enemy of good, I'll take what I can get and ask for more.
That's fair enough, I guess I'd just hope you'd ask for more in general from your government and society
America is really down bad if that's where people's standard is lol
It is indeed, no lol. This is what it now takes just to see that the law is enforced. For decades, we've waited for another option, and tried many, and nothing has worked. Things will continue to get more extreme until either the law is actually enforced or America rips itself apart.
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I used to ask for more in general. I voted third-party in every presidential election from when I turned 18 through 2020 because I wanted more than what the two parties were offering.
Then I saw how Biden "governed." And how Mayorkas "defended" my homeland.
It was a tough lesson to learn, but not one I'm likely to forget.
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