So we should just let them in and grant them permanent resident status?
Why not. Or at least give them the hearing they are entitled to under US Law.
Look, the thing is, the number of people crossing the border is only 20% of what it was in 2000, when NAFTA devastated the Mexican economy and sent millions streaming north.
Now, we are down to less than 300K a year. Just not a crisis.
Here's the thing. If there weren't rich white people up here willing to hire them, they wouldn't come. Well, the refugees might, because they are running for their lives. But as long as we need landscapers, lettuce pickers, nannies, and all the other unpleasant jobs white people aren't willing to do, we will have a need for cheap immigrant labor.
What we've done is actually counterproductive. Before they put up all that fencing, people would come up, work for a few months, and then go home. But when getting in became a bigger pain the ass, people just came and stayed.
The thing is, there was no reason for Trump to put kids in concentration camp. What the racists denounced as "Catch and Release" worked just fine. Refugees wanted their hearings, and they wouldn't get them if they didn't show up.
SO what I would do is create a "Guest Worker Program". You can't get citizenship. You still have to go through the regular channels. You can work here, so long as you are gainfully employed. If you get into legal trouble, back home you go.