Dems will hate it, but for the greater good, Biden may have to compromise on immigration | Opinion
Despite heated partisan rhetoric over the Southern border, Florida’s boat arrivals and cross-country migrant flights, immigration reform has remained a second-tier issue in Congress for years, expendable to red-blue politics.
Nobody seems interested in solving the problems long term.
Proposals to re-imagine and staff with resources a fair, humanitarian asylum process, increase border security — and solve, once and for all, the legal status of the undocumented brought to this country as children and, by now, contributing adults — aren’t high on enough bipartisan priority lists.
Single-issue immigration bills filed sit there and die by neglect, even when they contain increased funding for border security that President Biden has asked for and Republicans claim they want.
Action has been left to the executive branch: President Trump shuts down the border, harming not only asylum seekers but also business flow with Mexico. Biden lifts restrictions, and thousands of refuge-seeking people swarm the border.
But, with a tight presidential election looming — and two wars that Biden needs to continue funding, Ukraine and Israel’s — the status quo is being challenged.
Brace for a new immigration fight with repercussions, domestic and foreign.
Republicans are insisting on tying aid to Ukraine to Biden’s willingness to compromise on permanently embedding into law Trump-like immigration initiatives on asylum and border security.
Continued aid to Israel’s war on Hamas also needs funding, but Republicans aren’t about to commit political suicide by rejecting it. So they have homed in on withholding aid from Ukraine. No surprise there.
Trump, their favored presidential candidate, is friendly to invader Vladmir Putin.
No majority in House
Unfortunately, Biden doesn’t have the majority he needs in the House to play tough.
With freakish George Santos finally expelled, Republicans outnumber Democrats by a slim margin of eight — still enough to make trouble for Biden, even if a stand-off over Ukraine, and Israel by default, puts our national security at risk.
Republican immigration proposals are flying from House to Senate hands — all “poison bills” blackmailing Biden on migration and asylum. When he was still the Senate majority leader back in November 2022, and this plan was already brewing, Mitch McConnell called the trade an “opportunity.”
Now, immigration has become a full-fledged bargaining chip for Republicans to boast about on the campaign trail.
In the Secure the Border Act, for instance, E-verify would become mandatory nationwide — as installed in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Florida, where American businesses are being impacted by the exodus of migrant labor. It’s a great talking point to appeal to prejudiced voters, but it’s terrible for business.
If Republicans get their way, asylum would be so streamlined that it would be unavailable to most people. New laws would prevent the federal government from using parole programs from which Cubans, Venezuelans, Ukrainians and Afghans have benefited.
And, believe it or not, they’re demanding that Biden fund Trump’s hideous and ineffective border wall — a sham of an idea — and seize private property when necessary.
Biden, well-aware of the danger a Putin victory would mean for the West, has signaled that he was open to talks about immigration policy — instantly angering Democrats.
“President Biden is badly mistaken to think Democrats in Congress will agree to Trump-era, anti-immigrant policies that will gut our asylum and humanitarian parole laws, which are the bedrock of our country,” Sen. Bob Menendez, of New Jersey, said Monday in a statement. “There is bipartisan agreement that it is in America’s national security interests to support our allies in Israel and Ukraine — there should be no preconditions on this aid.”
For Florida, a return to the hard-line on immigration could mean the end of newly opened family reunification and sponsor programs aimed at ending illegal crossings. Few migrant-laden boats have arrived since Biden announced them in January.
We would see the steady streams again. Sixty-some years of exoduses prove that, when forced to, Cubans and Haitians choose to risk their lives at sea.
Try compromise
Yet, it behooves Republicans and Democrats to think this round of immigration battles through — and act accordingly. There’s room for some compromise in the center, and Biden knows it.
It’s not like Democrats haven’t been reading the political tea leaves.
What’s troubling them is the loss of the moral, humanitarian high ground. The United States’ reputation rests on being a beacon of refuge for people fleeing persecution and war. It’s hard to give that up to Republican xenophobia.
But wrestling a second term from Trump — and saving democracy at home and in the world — should be priority No. 1.
This story was originally published December 12, 2023 at 3:47 PM.
