Well, apparently Trump's proposal is out and it is...plausible? My fear here is that if the Dems take it, getting everything they want vis a vis DACA/Dreamers, the same people who are attacking them now as caving for lack of support for DACA will be attacking them for accepting the other conditions to get it.
-$25 billion in funding for the "wall"...well, it is such a vague and symbolic thing, not likely to have significant impact, and likely to take years to get anywhere, this seems like something that could just be reversed in 2021 without having done much harm.
-No longer giving adult children, siblings and parents of citizens preference in immigration. Fine. I mean, I support open borders, but if we are going to limit immigration I'm not sure giving priority to this broader circle of family members needs to be a priority.
-Ending the diversity lottery in favor of "merit" selections. Likely discriminatory, but tolerable. Again, these changes need not be in place forever. Admittedly legislating immigration has been hellish but hopefully it can happen again when the power is such that the outcome is better.
If Trump was going even more heavily against refugees as part of this compromise, I would be more likely to oppose it because I think that is the most important part of our immigration system from a humanitarian standpoint.
Agree about the wall. The wall doesn't particularly bother me because it will take forever to build and be derailed once Democrats get back into power, which seems quite likely to happen sooner than later. Even if it gets built, it's kind of irrelevant. There's already quite a bit of fencing on the border, and people I've brought there from where I'm originally from in the Midwest find it sad to look at. I don't see the wall increasing the demoralizing effect of the current fencing, or increase any sense of shame some of our own citizens have. Also agree about refugees.
Disagree about chain immigration. I think both the refugee issue and chain immigration issue are important from a moral standpoint, and they represent the U.S.A. I want to be a part of. That's a very subjective and personal stance, I know, but I hate to see families separated, especially in cultures where the extended family is more integral and perhaps crucial to the psychological well-being of their family members on their way or already here.