Yep, the laws are there. It's the will that's been lacking.
@Sanguine I think that Trump is very conflicted about the whole immigration topic.
As virtually everyone agrees at this point, "principles" are certainly not his guiding light on most topics. Absent the principles, he says and reacts to a lot by how he
feels at a particular point in time. And perhaps, whom he has spoken with last.
I believe that there is a part of him that truly relates to, and wishes to support and remedy, the plight of ordinary Americans that have been suffering the consequences of both our unbridled legal immigration policies of many decades, and the complete lack of enforcement against the mounting invasion of illegal aliens.
But there is another part of him that is swayed by the "practical" and emotionally laden arguments. There are a lot of voices that tell him "business needs these workers, we can't compete in a global economy unless we can obtain low wage workers..." Of course we know that this "practical" side has led him to employ scores of foreign workers (legal or potentially otherwise) within his many business ventures. There are other voices that play to the emotional side, telling him that they are people that are just looking for opportunity, and color it in terms of the earlier European immigrants' struggles.
He sits and listens to both, at certain junctures he is swayed more toward one camp or the other.
This is clear as he has hardline representatives of both camps amongst his closest advisers, witness Stephen Miller's and JarVanka's presence.
We have all witnessed this turmoil and conflict playing out in his rallies for several years now. In segments that hearken back to the old time circus and medicine show promoters, he goes off on emotionally laden interludes that contain both promises to build a "big beautiful wall across the whole border" along with a "big beautiful DOOR right in the middle of it!" He speaks one moment about the "monsters" and "savages" that he will prevent from entering the country, and a moment later about the "good people" that he wants to welcome in for their want of a better life.
If you just re-watch some of these rally videos, you can hear it as the cognitive dissonance washes over the crowd as they process the disconnects... loud raucous cheers dim to almost silence for a moment, then come roaring back as he shouts and points toward another emotional trigger.
I suspect that it has been an ongoing internal struggle for Trump since he assumed office; however because of his office, the entire nation is pulled along in an existential national struggle.
