Having a path = making everyone walk that path, got it.
This has been a trip into leon logic, everyone.
Can someone remind me what a disaster the previous amnesties were? They must have absolutely destroyed America for the right to support another, bigger Operation Wetback rather than give illegal immigrants any chance at citizenship, right? And of course the amnesties must have all been perpetrated by evil leftists. You know, like Ronald Reagan.
But of course we absolutely need a president who will deliver on border control. I mean, just look at what Obama has done. By pussying out on the issue he let the illegal population swell tremendously and now they're gonna take over the damn country if we don't do something!
...Wait, what's that? The illegal population is down over the last decade? Fewer people are trying to cross the border? Border Patrol funding is way up and there's several hundred miles of new fencing along with new towers, new drones, and an unprecedented number of border agents? Well, shit.
But hey, there's still legitimate concerns about the impact of illegal immigrants on unskilled labor, right? Businesses throwing out American workers and hiring people they can underpay and abuse, whose working conditions they don't have to worry about. And there isn't enough enforcement action taken against businesses who do this, right? So, here's a novel concept. You secure the border (which we've spent the last nine years doing and will continue to do). You provide some form of legitimacy to the immigrants (like, IDK, a pathway to citizenship) so they can claim the same legal protections against being underpaid and abused that citizens have, taking a hatchet to the business incentives for this behavior. And then, to be sure, you go after businesses that continue to hire illegals.
...What's that? You just want to go after those dirty Mexicans for taking your jobs? Well, then.