Subject: Re: Trump: I Would Encourage Russia...
1. Locking in the level of illegal immigration in at record levels?

That represents a complete misunderstanding of the bill. The triggers were based on encounters, not admissions. When the border patrol encountered 5,000 people in a day, it would count - even if every single one of them was immediately deported under expedited removal processes. It didn't "lock" anything in. It wasn't based on the number of people getting something positive from immigration authorities, just the number of people encountered. It just described the circumstances when the draconian provision of not even accepting asylum requests would kick in.

3. Upping the number of judges, to faster process asylees into the country?

And to faster process them out of the country. Again, the problem is that you have all these folks pending a final hearing that get to stay in the country. The faster you get them to hearing, the faster you can deport the ones who don't qualify for asylum. This addresses the conservative complaint and theory of immigration, namely that these folks are being attracted by the multi-year waiting period even if they know they can't prevail on their asylum claims.

To say nothing of adding more funding for border patrol, more funding for detention facilities, and revising the criteria for the initial credible fear so that a much larger proportion of folks would be subject to immediate and summary deportation without getting a chance for even an immigration hearing. Nothing on a path to citizenship for DREAMERs or DACA or DAPA.

Yeah....I'd say that conservatives got plenty. More than they've seen in any immigration proposal in the last 30 years, and more than they'll see in any immigration proposal for another several Congresses or more.