This is a moment of utmost seriousness. For years, your leaders failed to address one of the biggest issues of our age: The challenge of rising global migration.
President Trump tried to force some progress on that incredibly serious issue with the partial government shutdown. In response, your leaders and your media behaved like children, treating the whole thing like a game.
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For goodness sake, let's get serious about this. Here are some simple truths: First, this is not a crisis of President Trump's making. He's trying to solve a problem that's been left to fester by politicians in both parties for decades - since 1986, to be precise.
That year's Immigration Reform and Control Act was supposed to be a one-time fix - amnesty for otherwise law-abiding illegal immigrants in exchange for severe penalties for employers hiring new illegal immigrants. It was a total failure. The amnesty happened, but the employer verification system turned out to be a joke. The result: a huge new incentive for illegal immigration -- the exact opposite of what was promised. One way or another, that failure has shaped the immigration debate ever since.
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But now, with this president, who is clearly committed to border security, we have a chance to break free from the traps of the past. So, here's my advice to President Trump: Seize that chance of a historic breakthrough.
Go big. Demand real border security - not just $5 billion, but $25 billion. Call it "border infrastructure" - everyone seems to be in favor of infrastructure - and include "enhanced fencing" so the Democrats can live with it.
Every supporter of the president, in Congress or the country, on this network or anywhere else, must realize that this moment could be make or break for the president's re-election. Don't box him in. Don't come out with stupid red lines that limit his room for negotiation. Give him the space to make a deal - a big one.
But don't stop there. Correct the failure of the 1986 act with a tough national e-verify system. Include visa tracking to spot those who enter through airports, too. In exchange, accept that a prize that big won't be won by an offer that is small. Offer protection for Dreamers and others. If real border security and e-verify are in place, it can be permanent, not temporary.
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Make that offer. Then go out to the country and sell it, every day, between now and Feb. 15. Show that you are the leader with the long-term plan; you are the unifier, you are the reasonable one. And at the end of all that, if the Democrats are still just saying no, well, you will have no choice but to deliver your election promise on your own.
But to supporters of President Trump who hope for that outcome because they don't want to pay the price of a deal with the Democrats, remember this: A wall decreed by executive order could end up being a "W.I.N.O." - a wall in name only. Far better to get a deal done and a wall actually built.
Every supporter of the president, in Congress or the country, on this network or anywhere else, must realize that this moment could be make or break for the president's re-election. Don't box him in.
Don't come out with stupid red lines that limit his room for negotiation. Give him the space to make a deal - a big one. A historic one. A deal that finally fixes our catastrophically broken immigration system.
Adapted from Steve Hilton's monologue from "The Next Revolution" on January, 27, 2019.
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