Give the man his wall

Someone, somewhere, somehow is going to have to give President Donald Trump a piece of wall to stand in front of. It might as well be the Democratic congressional leaders Charles Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

The wall is not a good idea; it’s a colossal boondoggle in the making. That’s why many Republicans as well as Democrats oppose the president’s signature initiative.

Practicalities sometimes get tossed aside in the immigration debate, mostly because immigration policy is forged by joining two irreconcilable ambitions. On one side is the drive for human freedom for people who illegally crossed the border to build better lives and join the fabric of America. On the other is a fierce determination to prevent people from crossing the border illegally, period.

There is no way to make sense of these contrasting visions except by compromise that fulfills neither. Thus the price of freedom for undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., including Dreamers brought here as children, can only be some form of increased security.

Conservatives in Congress cannot face their voters if they agree to legalization, let alone citizenship, for all 11 million immigrants living illegally in the U.S. without being assured that the process will not repeat itself in another few decades.

One way or another, billions of dollars will be spent on security to ransom Dreamers, and eventually others, and much of that spending will be sub-optimal.

Meanwhile, the militarization of the border has led to the professionalization of sneaking across it. Immigrants now pay increasingly high fees to cartels to secure passage. Enriching those cartels was not exactly the desired outcome.

Other expenditures would surely be more cost-effective. The Border Patrol could make good use of paved roads and better technology. But spending money wisely on proven deterrents won’t fulfill the requirements of a political deal: Immigration conservatives must get something expensive and concrete in exchange for freeing Dreamers.

Given those facts, a piece of wall is a small concession that Democrats (and border-state Republicans, most of whom also oppose the idea) should make. A wall is a symbol to Trump voters and a promise he desperately wants to fulfill. It’s a symbol Democrats can exploit, as well, reassuring swing voters that they are not the party of “open borders.” Sure, it’s a waste. But a brief, discrete stretch of tremendous, Trumpian edifice may be the incongruous price of human freedom.