It's not just performance art. The Democrats don't agree with the most draconian measures for securing the border, but they do (or did) support strengthening border controls in several ways that the GOP agrees with.

Such as? They don't want a wall and they don't want actual law enforcement on the border. The democrats want more agents to process people into the country faster.

Generally, they also support programs that support immigrants that are already here (notably the DREAMERs), and so generally favor a comprehensive approach to immigration reform that includes both border security measures and normalization of the legal status of the DREAMERs.

We covered this. That bill had very little in the way of actual security and was mostly about processing people in faster.

No it wasn't, and no it isn't. HR 2 is the measure that was "performance art" - it's a messaging bill, one that is only 100% what the base of one party wants. Those kinds of bills only get through the chamber you control because it cannot pass. If you actually have to negotiate with the center-leaning portion of your own party (forget the other party), you can't get that bill passed.

HB 2 passed with all but 2 Republicans voting yes. What GOP senator is going to vote no?

The compromise bill wasn't trash. It simply was the most border-security-focused bill that could pass the Senate. Like, in a generation.

You're describing a very, very low bar. One that's not really a bar but more like a piece of tape on the ground.

So you keep credulously believing that one day you'll get that bill that's 100% of what you want, and instead pass up anything short of that - so instead, the country keeps living under immigration laws that don't work for modern immigration problems.

The government under Biden has been actively shipping migrants around and more or less ignoring the fact that we have a border at all. This is an issue that's been brewing for 40 years. There have been massive strides made in the last 2 in educating the public as to the real story.