You guys are making some good points. Of course this is terrible policy.
But TJustice has hit on a crucial point. Republican voters are beyond fed up with our leaders. We elected Trump to do one fucking thing, build a wall, and they have done everything possible to block him from doing so. They solemnly promised to repeal and replace obamacare. So what did they do instead? Moved heaven and earth to get a tax cut, most of which went to the same Silicon Valley monopolist billionaires who are deplatforming us and censoring conservatives. Our leaders response: "Well that's troubling but they are private companies."
Now we have yet another organized invasion and we will get handwringing from our leaders instead of action. Trump had a somewhat effective "zero tolerance" policy but they fell for the democrats' "children in cages" nonsense and pressured him to resume the previous policy of catch and release.
At some point republican voters will being to ask, what's the point? We elect these guys because the democrat alternative is so obviously unacceptable but they turn around and backstab us. Over and over. They acted like they won the Super Bowl because they barely confirmed one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees in history.
We're sick of their shit, the tax cuts are not doing crap for most republican voters, they're complicit in turning the country over to foreign invaders, so yeah, $500 a month sounds pretty good.
The Wall thing has not gone well. But at least Trump has not caved on DACA without it and gorsuch and kavanauch have joined the court as the daca cases rise on appeal. More to come.
Full disclosure: I am not a coast to coast wall advocate but definitely for large stretches where it makes sense, with more discretion to use funding for the other stretches as makes sense to the border patrol, locals, and the military who have a responsibility to stop invasions. But I am outcome oriented, show me what approach is working and do more of that. Clearly that would involve a wall for large, large stretches.
The under-reported little thing that has happened but is a gamechanger - as we are already seeing- is that Mexico has accepted without much choice- that the Americans are and will be deporting unsuccessful invaders to Mexico if they passed through Mexico, rather than back to their country of origin. This does not end but puts a sizeable dent in their longstanding game of raping, pillaging, cartel bribing policy of just pillaging migrants knowing that they are just passing through and then they help them to pass through after extracting their pounds of flesh. Mexico is as corrupt as the day is long and I am not even remotely saying that can be fixed. But even with this latest caravan you see them sweating about the possibility that lots of these migrants may not making it across the border and they will end out as part of Mexico's population, and then millions more behind them. Many will make it through eventually until the US changes its frigging laws. Nevertheless, the new Mexican president who has to improve the economy to stay in power does not want migrants to dilute the few jobs. The game has always been for them to pass through, and then for the US to deport back to Guatamala, Honduras, wherever.
Also, the UN is on the ground at Mexico's request and even though the UN is worthless, it is also true that the UN knows that international law means that Mexico must accept any legit refugees seeking asylum. International law says that if you go beyond the first designated asylum acceptable country, you are now an economic migrant just looking for a better place. International law is absolutely on the side of the Americans but American law keeps us from just bouncing them out if they cannot pass a quick checklist/probably cause claim and you have to show that you are a citizen of Mexico and your claim arises from persecution in Mexico. Yes, there is a little game played their too but it makes it clear that you better not be presenting as a honduran or guatamalan. You have to up your game a little. Flying the Honduran flag would not be all that smart.
If it were not for the midterms, I would be considerably optimistic. Trump and the Mexican president are in a kissy faced stage for at least short period. Mexico does not want the immigrants for the reasons discussed, and is at least trying to corral them. We dont want them either. Trump gave mexico a little lesson/opportunity, that they can do better or worse for themselves in trade agreements depending on how they behave. I could be optimistic for a few months to see what more can come from that. The rather large fly in the ointment is the midterms. The dems have not won until they have won, even they know that, but the numbers are in their favor, unless their is a surprise. And they will want to identify anything that is working for the illegals and make sure that we do more of that. That is not necessarily the end of the story but it will be a sad undermining of possibilities. Then the court will eventually allow termination of daca and trump will play that card much harder than the lefties ever dreamed and he will veto any lefty legislation that is not to his liking. Ugly way to do business. Be nice to see them beaten at the midterms. I dont count on it but will willingly accept surprises.