A lot of the flak being directed at the Supreme Court today for its decision in Nielsen v. Preap is more properly directed at Congress. The Court correctly interpreted the law. See yesterday's post. Statutes dealing strongly with aliens who commit "aggravated felonies" are, in my opinion, good policy as a general matter. However, as I have noted for years on this blog (see, e.g., this post), Congress has botched some aspects, including the definition of "aggravated felony."
Congress really should be able to pass a broad bill that fixes this problem, the childhood arrivals problem, border security, and employer verification. The divisions of opinion on these issues are not insurmountable. Compromise is possible if people are reasonable. Will it happen in the current Congress? Very doubtful. Too many people in influential positions are more interested in having an issue for the next election than they are in solving problems.
My suggestion for Senator McConnell is to go ahead and put together a broad bill that most Americans would agree with and bring it to the floor. If it is filibustered in the Senate or killed in the House, the cynicism will be laid bare for all to see.
I think Alitos' reading of the text is pretty strained. That aside, your suggestion is a reasonable one. The problem is it was tried by a bipartisan group of Senators and Trump said he would veto it. It is hard to imagine that a veto proof majority can be found for, well, anything. The laying bare of Trump's cynicism does not seem to have moved the needle certainly.
No veto-proof majority is needed. A compromise of the kind I describe that President Trump would sign is quite achievable.
Since Yahoo does not provide a user name, please adopt a "handle" and "sign" your comments so that everyone can see which comments come from the same person.
I think the contrary reading of the text is the one that is strained. In addition, the history of the statute supports the majority's reading, as described in our brief.