This is not a dichotomy. Border and deportation reform can coincide with accepting the practical reality of undocumented residents currently in the US.

Republicans allowed this willingly, too.

Ripping apart millions of families and snatching peaceful residents off the streets, out of churches, off of farms and out of courtrooms with masked agents is not the only way.

Separately: Birthright citizenship is a fair topic to debate. What is not normal is pretending it isn't one of the most plain and direct clauses in the Constitution.

There are other paths.

> is not the only way

> There are other paths.

But there aren't if no one walks them. How did Trump manage to almost instantly shut down the 10k (or whatever it is) a day crossings the previous administration said was impossible to stop?

Because if you're the party of illegal immigration and you oppose voter ID (because your core voters have such low expectations of African Amerticans that you can claim it's about them not being able to get an ID) then you can import voters.

And then you can indeed also claim "well they're here now; nothing can be done", and indeed do nothing. But that is also not the only path. No path is the only path, so using that criticism selectively is deliberately misleading.

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Yes, indeed. When the wild west was a meat grinder bodies were needed. And no one was paid benefits from other peoples' taxes, so it was real freedom (and responsibility), as adding people didn't add cost.

Both of those things have radically changed.

> In basically no other country... do you have the birthright citizenship

I see plenty of countries on here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli#/media/File:Jus_soli_... what're you talking about?