Luis Gutiérrez says he’s willing to build the Wall himself if it helps the Dreamers, and Chuck Schumer put funding for the Wall on the table in his Friday meeting with Trump. There should be an enormous amount of skepticism about this.
Even if everyone in Washington has the best of intentions, a Wall is unlikely to be built anytime soon, given the the logistical, legal, and bureaucratic challenges. And Democrats don’t have good intentions. If they take back Congress, surely one of their first priorities will be to defund and stop whatever Wall has been authorized.
Also, border security, properly considered, is about much more than the Wall — it requires all sorts of resources and authorities to make sure that people who are caught at the border don’t make it into the country anyway. Are Democrats going to accede to those?
Finally, this isn’t a big departure for immigration doves — they were also willing to throw money, about $30 billion, at the border to sweeten up the Gang of Eight bill. They are in a position now where they can make a theatrical concession on the border to try to get the kind of deal that restrictionists have always opposed — an immediate amnesty, for border security later.