Every U.S. citizen who is not descended from a Native American Indian is a descendant of an illegal immigrant. Every undocumented immigrant is a human being, and deserving of humane treatment and care.
If it is time to close our borders, fine. Let’s do that in a sane and humanitarian way.
Families need to be kept together, those born here when that was enough for citizenship, are citizens now, and that should not be challenged. Those married to U.S. Citizens when that was a path to citizenship, are citizens now, and that should not be challenged either.
Those who have managed to get here, and have survived horrific rides in hot, closed trailers, or across stormy seas, or however they got here, should not be sent back to countries where they will starve, or be persecuted or tortured for political or religious beliefs, or killed by cartels or corrupt governments.
The cost of citizenship programs could easily be covered in a number of ways. We could tax the wealthy at similar rates as the rest of the citizenry. We could end Citizens United. We could stop sending billions of dollars in weapons of war to other countries to fight battles that are not ours.