Trump Sets Up a Grand Bargain on Immigration
To end the polarized and paralyzed debate over immigration policy, President Trump has proposed a deal. The president will grant amnesty to an estimated 1.8 million so-called Dreamers — young people who were brought illegally to the United States as children — in return for (a) $25 billion for a wall on the southern border and other border enforcement measures; (b) elimination of the lottery that distributes 50,000 visas per year, with a reallocation of some of those visas to high-skilled immigrants; and (c) curbing chain migration by “limiting family sponsorship to spouses and minor children only.”...
Nearly half of the illegal immigrants are visa overstayers...
The limits on chain migration might cut the numbers by about 400,000 and would closely align with the recommendation of the 1997 immigration commission led by the legendary Barbara Jordan, which suggested a flow of 550,000 legal immigrants a year....
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the net cost of granting amnesty to the Dreamers (the additional expenses minus the taxes they pay) would run to $25 billion over the next 10 years....
So the first step in any deal will be — must be — securing the border.