Nothing in this post is wrong, but as someone who is friends with many (legal) immigrants and was in a relationship with one for a long time, I feel like it elides that there is _some_ tradeoff between recruitment and enforcement.

What I have repeatedly heard during both Trump administrations is the constant low-level fear that immigrants have, that they may have messed up crossing a single t or forgotten to check some box, or even that they just get misidentified or mistaken, and they suddenly fall in the unforgiving “illegal” pile with no recourse. Some say this gave them active second thoughts about staying, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it changed people’s behavior at the margin.

A very harsh bouncer does make the job of a recruiter (or to keep the analogy the same, a promoter) more difficult, even if voters want both and both have a role to play.