Joe Biden and the Democrats have had two years of control of the White House and Congress. Now that Republicans are going to take control of the House in January, suddenly all kinds of items on the wish lists of Democrats are being discussed as the lame duck session agenda. One of those items is to revise DACA policy. One Republican congressional delegation is saying not so fast…

Even though DACA is unconstitutional, and Barack Obama admitted as much when he signed it into effect, some Republicans were willing to go along with Democrats to revise DACA. Now, however, with Republicans so close to taking back the House and the time running out on the lame duck session, it is doubtful that it will be done. Good. With all we are seeing with the Biden border crisis, it is unacceptable to move forward with anything that grants any leniency to anyone until the border is secured. Period.

A liberal-leaning group has released a poll that shows that “the vast majority of Texans say illegal immigration is a problem, more than two-thirds also support a “tough but fair” path to citizenship for the 11 million or more undocumented immigrants living in the United States, according to a new poll. Support is even stronger for allowing 2 million young “Dreamers” to become citizens – and for a broader deal of the sort being kicked around during the lame duck Congress this month.” Third Way, a group that advocates for bipartisan solutions, hopes to soften up Senator John Cornyn, the senior senator from Texas, with those results. The group wants Cornyn to support what Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ)have cooked up. Good luck with that, is what I say.

Their plan, not yet final, would devote at least $25 billion more for border security and to speed the processing of asylum claims. It would also let Dreamers – undocumented immigrants brought into the country illegally as children – become citizens in 10 years.

They would also extend for at least a year Title 42, the Trump-era public health emergency measure invoked during the COVID-19 outbreak to allow immediate expulsion of migrants.

“If there was a secret ballot, John Cornyn would absolutely support this,” said Lanae Erickson, senior vice president for social policy, education and politics at Third Way. “Hopefully seeing the strength of those numbers, especially with Republicans and conservatives and Trump voters, he can be dissuaded from thinking that he might lose his seat in a primary.”

Cornyn, a potential lynchpin on such issues as a border state Republican and a top adviser to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, has expressed little interest in the Sinema-Tillis plan, though in April 2021 he proposed a package, working with Sinema and others, that roughly tracks its framework.

Third Way only polled 800 likely voters in Texas. That’s a very small number. Cornyn, at times, has been interested in working toward a way to address the Dreamer population but now is not the time to offer amnesty to anyone. Perhaps offer permission for them to continue to legally live in this country – as long as they do not have a criminal record – but a big fat no to citizenship. And, I’m only talking about Dreamers, not the entire 11 million or so illegal aliens who are in this country. I think the number is higher than that.

The Texas Association of Business uses a Chamber of Commerce approach – we need illegal aliens as workers.

“We’re in a very inflationary situation, so the taking of 100,000 workers and people who are going to colleges and universities out of the workforce for a state like Texas that is booming would have very serious economic consequences,” said Glenn Hamer, president and CEO of Texas Association of Business.

Texas Republicans in Congress unveiled a border framework last week – by Texans for Texas. The framework presented is split up into categories.

The first is a commitment to completing infrastructure at the border — including finishing the Trump-era border wall, which has largely stalled under the Biden administration. They also want to aid Border Patrol recruitment and install 700 miles of roads along the border, while reimbursing Texas for border security expenses.

On the policy side, the lawmakers want to require the U.S. government to turn away all illegal immigrants if they cannot be detained and placed into systems like the “Remain-in-Mexico” policy which kept migrants in Mexico for their hearings.

They also want to see the defunding of all non-governmental organizations that they say encourage “the violation of our border security and related laws.” Additionally, the framework includes the closing of “loopholes” in asylum law in relation to the treatment of minors, and to stop the abuse of the asylum system by those not fleeing persecution.

The framework would also put limits on the extent to which DHS can use prosecutorial discretion to release illegal immigrants into the interior, and its use of parole — supposed to be used on a case-by-case basis — to mass release migrants into the interior. It calls for increased enforcement for criminal illegal immigrants and visa overstayers.

Finally the framework calls for the targeting cartels by designating cartels as terrorists and increasing penalties for human trafficking and drug smuggling — including fentanyl.

It’s all common sense. It’s what we know works because most of it did during the previous administration. The border went into crisis when the dullard in the Oval Office decided to prove what a humanitarian he is and cancelled all of the agreements and programs that were working before he took office. That was not a humanitarian move, it was a dereliction of duty. Barriers along the border, bring back immediate expulsions for those who can’t be detained, revise the asylum system, end the use of parole to release illegal aliens into the interior of the U.S., and designate cartels as terrorists. All of that is doable, if only we had an administration that would do it. None of that is extreme.

Nothing should even be discussed in the lame duck session. Then in the next session, nothing should be done to revise DACA policy until the border is secured.