President Trump has finally decided what he wants from Congress on immigration reform, and that's as bad a thing as you might expect from someone who, despite his immigration roots, immigrant (mother, grandfather), expresses antagonism towards immigrants, especially Africans, Mexicans and Central Americans. But the biggest problem with the proposal the administration unveiled Thursday is that it is not the comprehensive reform it should be. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Trump wants Congress to allocate $25 billion to fund his stupid wall on the Mexican border and limit family-sponsored immigration to spouses and children of U.S. citizens and green card holders and end the diversity lottery through which approximately 50,000 people can apply for an immigrant visa each year. He also wants money for more border guards, despite an inspector general's report last year that found the administration could not document "operational necessity or deployment strategies" for the additional 15,000 immigration agents Trump wanted to hire. In exchange for all that, Trump says he will agree to allow 1.8 million so-called Dreamers – people who have lived here illegally since childhood – to gain status and apply for citizenship… within 10 or 12 years. Congress should reject this agreement. by hand. We deeply sympathize with Dreamers and believe they should be granted a (much quicker) path to citizenship based on their merits, not as part of a ransom paid for policies rooted in economic misconceptions and xenophobia. Crucially, the administration hasn't even bothered to argue why it believes the nation admits too many legal immigrants each year. This proposal trades the safety of Dreamers for the aspirations of the Trump administration's nationalists to radically cut off the flow of people into this country. Notably, the proposal does not even address the majority of the 11 million people living in the United States without authorization. Trump's proposal pretends that they don't exist or, worse yet, that his draconian enforcement policies will somehow send them all into the fray. The vast majority of those living here illegally are hard-working people seeking to make a better life for themselves and their families, and they have insinuated themselves deeply into the economy and their communities. More importantly, despite their lack of legal status, they are emblems of what Americans like to think has made this country what it is: people who come here to cultivate hopes for the future. As a relatively young society, we are self-created by the migratory rivers that have flowed here since Europeans began arriving. The Census Bureau estimated five years ago that a quarter of people living in the United States were immigrants or the children of immigrants. It is the confluence of all those cultures, protected by the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, that have made America today what it is. However, the federal government can and should discourage illegal immigration as part of the process of determining who can live here. Every nation has the right and duty to make that decision, and smart and effective border security is important. But Trump's wall is more symbolic than practical politics, as long as you can build stairs, dig tunnels and fly airplanes (or drones). Furthermore, more and more people living here without authorization arrive legally but then don't leave.