You just described Greg Abbott, who is the fucking epitome of flavor-of-the-month ideas, based on whoever is a threat to him, whether it's Don Huffines (and the billionaires backing him) or Beto. Oh, and when Abbott beats Beto in November, you will see flavor-of-the-month ideas like nobody's business because Abbott gives no fucks about Texas, his sights will be firmly set on DeSantis.
The only people who think walls will stop illegals are fucking morons, because the walls aren't removing the incentive to come to the US, and that incentive is construction, lawn, etc. jobs that, even as shitty as they are for us Americans, pay a shitload more than most jobs in Mexico and points further south.
You know what the aggy was actually proposing in 2001? An actual solution that would slow down illegal immigration, because he pushed the idea that if we improve conditions in Mexico, it removes the incentives to come to the US.
Republicans don't want to stop illegal immigration and you know this. You fucking know this flatty. They want that cheap labor, which is why Bush, McCain, Perry, etc. were pushing a guest worker program in 2006 and 2007, and it's why Republican administrations, whether it's Bush or Trump, don't take the simplest of steps to make life difficult for the illegals.
What are those steps? Well, if you want to stop illegal immigration, you shut down the jobs. Have the IRS and Social Security Administration pour through their databases and look at all of the times that clearly showed Social Security #s being used illicitly (I had to become intimately familiar with how easily they are misused due to somebody using my SS#).
And you get strict. Tyson Foods gets raided for the 5th time for employing hundreds of illegals? Stop with these bullshit fines and fucking drop the hammer on them, and drop the hammer on their management that is helping hire illegals. Frame it as a national security issue if you want - claim that by encouraging people to enter our country illegally for jobs, they are working to subvert our law enforcement and border security.
But Republicans won't make the IRS and SSA crack down on Social Security # fraud. They won't drop the hammer on companies that keep on employing illegals. Because Republicans want it and they've wanted that illegal labor for decades, because why should Betty J. Babyboomer mow her own lawn, and why should a major homebuilder in Texas pay more for actual American citizens to build homes for them when illegals do just fine.