In political posturing, no solutions for border
As politicians hurl blame and lies about the unrelenting surge of migrants at the border, the Biden administration is engaged in an unprecedented effort to transform a broken immigration system. The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended nearly 100,000 refugees at the U.s.-mexico border in February, the 10th consecutive month of increased apprehensions and a return to levels last seen in mid-2019, according to the Pew Research Center. During a hostile grilling in a House committee hearing Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas predicted the southwest border was on pace to see more refugees than in the past 20 years.
Mayorkas said the department was reactivating detention facilities in Texas and Arizona, and deploying FEMA to help care for the overwhelming number of migrant children flooding the border until they can be returned or placed with sponsors.
The border is not open — most single adults and families who cross illegally are expelled to Mexico. Migrants shut out by former President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy are making perilous journeys out of hope — desperately fleeing conditions in Central America unimaginable to most Americans.
Thousands are sending their children to the United States in hope they will have a better chance of asylum. About 8,500 children are being held too long in facilities in South and West Texas — in conditions where no one, especially children, should stay, especially during a pandemic. Transformation is messy, and while there are no quick fixes, progress must be swift.
Yet the familiar political rhetoric is deterring progress. Arguing on Twitter and during a congressional hearing about whether it should be called a crisis or a disaster, incorrectly stating that President Joe Biden opened the border, making border visits that are more political theater than substantive, and holding news conferences to complain and blame are not helpful.
“This is more than a crisis,” Rep. Kevin Mccarthy, R-calif., told reporters in El Paso, where he and others toured a detention facility. “This is a human heartbreak.”
Indeed. But this isn’t the first surge, and there is plenty of blame to share.
Like many Republicans, Mccarthy did not express outrage in 2019 when a record number of migrant children — almost 70,000, many unaccompanied — were held in U.S. custody, according to the Associated Press. There wasn’t a word of concern from Gov. Greg Abbott or Sen. Ted Cruz or others who are now speaking so loudly. Where was the outrage then? Where was their anger when in 2020 it was widely reported that the parents of 545 children who were separated at the border could not be found? Was their indignation and concern for migrants muted because a Republican was in the White House?
Referring to a “Biden border crisis,” Mccarthy said terrorists were trying to cross into the United States via Mexico — a claim Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-ariz., chairman of the House subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations called “wrong or a lie,” according the Washington Post.
A day after lifting COVID-19 restrictions, Abbott accused migrants of spreading the virus and then refused FEMA reimbursement for the testing and quarantine of immigrants.
Immigration has been broken for decades and we need a bipartisan effort for systematic change. And while perfection is impossible, the Biden administration should have been more prepared for the surge.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-san Antonio, said the border is always a politicized issue: “There are some in politics who use the surge to paint the idea that there are a bunch of brown people coming here to hurt Americans; that is not the case — these are desperate people trying to flee desperate situations.”
Enough with the partisan bickering and lies. If concern about the border is genuine, then get to work on comprehensive reform, including substantive relief to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
Roberta Jacobson, Biden’s coordinator for the southern border, shared the administration’s plan to “seek $4 billion over four years to address the root causes of migration — including corruption, violence and economic devastation exasperated by climate change.”
We can’t build a better immigration system — one that exemplifies humanity and security — with rote partisan responses.