Actually Mike, if you take the time to read up on the issue, you’ll find that illegal immigration was a thing back in the mid 1800’s with anti-Irish / anti-Catholic sentiments running strong in the eastern US. Later the “problem” became focused on Chinese entering the country illegally mostly in the west. The political pressure to deal with illegal immigration became so great at the time that the federal government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. It was said that all these illegal entries took jobs away from local citizens and because they were perceived as working for nearly nothing they held down wages. (Sound familiar?) This is considered by many, if not most history scholars as the genesis point of illegal entries into the US being a recognized national problem. Prior to that individual border states, California included, passed their own laws against illegal entries, across every border, but none carried much clout.

For the record, the 2014 “cages” I was referring to were new at that time and done under the Obama watch. YOu can find it in the public record. He saw it illegal immigration as a big problem, as did Clinton, Pelosi, Schumer and many other Dems. Here’s a quote on the topic from Bill Clinton's State of the Union Address in 1995;

“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”

I’m a logic and reason, evidence-based kinda guy. I spend a good deal of time looking into issues before I speak about them. I also has a pretty good memory for what our political “Leaders” have told us in the past. They have a tendency to switch positions on issue for political gain so what they say to get your vote today may not be what they will say to mine tomorrow. I like holding their feet to the fire. Just sayin…..!