America needs humane, rational, and compassionate immigration reform
True to form, House Republicans have sacrificed the opportunity to make a difference to benefit Donald Trump
Immigration is an issue that almost every American seems to have an opinion about. But many seem to have forgotten what we were taught in school, that America is a melting pot. Our homeland is comprised of people from every point on the globe who’ve arrived on our shores looking for opportunity and a better life.
President Biden has spoken frequently to the truth that America is the only country in the world built on an IDEA. Reasonable people can, of course, disagree on precisely what that idea is, but I think generally most will agree that it involves freedom and the right to be who you wish to be.
These days, though, many of my fellow citizens are laser-focused on how to keep people out of America. America is full, they say; we have neither the capacity nor the resources to take in more of the world’s destitute and needy.
A cynic like me might view that argument with some skepticism, of course. My response would be that it’s not the capacity or resources we lack, but rather the will. We don’t take care of our own because too many lack the compassion and kindness of spirit to do so. It strains credibility to believe they’d want to care for those coming to America from foreign lands.
Today, there’s also the argument made by
that Donald Trump killed what could have been a “win-win” proposal in the immigration bill that passed the Senate but arrived DOA in the House.
Trump didn’t want to see President Joe Biden handed a victory on an issue that the GOP have spotlighted as a major campaign issue this fall. Pass the immigration bill, and suddenly Democrats and the President have something solid THEY can run on.
So, no, it’s not about fixing a humanitarian crisis on our southern border. It’s about demagoguing that human suffering to build political capital Republicans hope they can cash in come November.
[T]he proximate obstacle to the bill passing is objections from House Republicans — objections that I believe to be overwhelmingly cynical and motivated by a desire to hurt Biden politically rather than by objections to the bill on the merits. Trump said he wanted the GOP to block the bill to help him politically, and that’s what they’re doing. But ever since he said that, savvier politicians than Trump have come out of the woodwork to offer objections on the merits, and I worry that by making the case for the bill to Democrats, I only bolster the argument against it for Republicans.
This is, unfortunately, what makes bipartisan deals hard to sell — if it’s good for progressives, it’s bad for conservatives (and vice versa), so the deal doesn’t get done.
So I want to conclude by arguing that conservatives should see that Democrats have made real concessions here, precisely because “the border” is clearly a point of political vulnerability for Biden. If a future GOP president wants to get similar amounts of money spent and similar legal changes enacted, Democrats are going to demand a higher price in terms of legalization.
Democrats have legitimately tried to solve the immigration crisis. To do this, the bill that passed the Senate meets Republicans far more than halfway. As Yglesias says, Democrats made real concessions to make the bill palatable to Republicans, but Donald Trump still ordered them to stomp on it, which they obediently did.
There’s a problem with that “strategy,” however. By continuing the status quo, which is the situation the GOP has consistently blamed the President for, Republicans risk having the tables turned and responsibility for the immigration crisis being laid at their feet.
Doing nothing will only continue
[t]he thing conservatives worry about — irregular migration and lack of control at the border — has only gotten worse. It’s better to get the deals done when you can, and I think we will all live to regret Trump’s wrecking of this one.
In thinking about the sometimes-charged rhetoric surrounding our southern border, I do have to take issue with those who, like
, refer to immigrants as “invaders.” And those who, like , who have no issue with referring to immigrants as “illegals.”
I’ll concede that the situation at our southern border is less than ideal. However, Republicans in the House have an opportunity to take a positive step towards implementing solutions. Instead of doing their job, they’ve caved to Donald Trump, who’d rather demagogue the issue during the Presidential campaign. So, it’s not about trying to make the lives of those who are suffering any better. Neither Trump nor those who think of immigrants as “invaders” or “illegals” give a damn about the people; they’re merely chess pieces in their political game.
What we need is a sane, rational immigration policy- fully funded, fully staffed, and able to keep to the timelines laid out by the policy. Absent that, chaos will continue to be the order of the day. Republicans in the House have been given an opportunity to move the needle…and they’ve chosen the coward’s way out, all so they and Donald Trump may continue to blame the President.
Meanwhile, anti-immigrant zealots like
continue to spread fear and loathing of those looking for a better life. People like this have no solutions, but they’re only too happy to hammer Joe Biden about how he has yet to “fix” the problem.Immigration is not a problem that is the President’s sole responsibility to fix. Nor can he fairly be assigned full responsibility for its continuance. House Republicans, if they possessed any moral courage at all, would take this moment to step and do the right thing.
That they’ve chosen to take the cowardly fork in the road speaks to their complete moral vacancy.
We should not presume immigrants to be somehow uniformly evil. They aren’t a monolithic assemblage of criminals looking for a place to happen. Certainly, within any population there are those unable or unwilling to live by the rules. People like that can be found among good, God-fearing, White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual patriots just as they can be found among desperately poor immigrant Brown People. Of course, immigrants are easy to demonize because they’re easier to distinguish- they don’t look like we do, nor do many of them speak English. That doesn’t make them criminals, just people who want a better life for themselves and their families.
No human being is “illegal.”
No human being is an “invader.”
No human being is an ipso facto criminal looking for a place to human.
While I certainly agree that America needs a better, more rational, and more compassionate immigration policy, we also need Americans who recognize the humanity of immigrants.
We are Americans due only to an accident of birth. But for a different set of circumstances and some bad luck, we could just as easily be the ones trying to ford the Rio Grande late at night. We could be the ones hoping to escape political persecution, abject poverty, disease, famine, and war. We could be the ones coming to America in search of opportunity and a better life.
Being an American isn’t prima facie evidence of us being better human beings. It God doesn’t view Americans as somehow a level above. It doesn’t mean we’re superior beings and that we have no compassionate obligation to those on the south bank of the Rio Grande. We’re Americans due only to our great good fortune.
Whether Republican or Democrat, we must not forget that.
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And of course the recent studies -- most especially from the CBO -- that show that migrant workers are actually a boost to the economy. We've known for a long that they are not a source of crime (they are far less to do anything illegal than native borns.)