Immigration hypocrisy
Republicans rejected a bipartisan compromise on immigration, but that hasn’t stopped leaders like Rep. Elise Stefanik from railing about a situation they perpetuate.
Two immigrants frozen to death along the Canadian border. Thousands of people stuck in a bureaucratic limbo that leaves many men, women and children without shelter between California and Mexico.
One would think that such tragedy and human suffering would prompt a prominent member of Congress – one with all the clout and public exposure that comes with being her conference’s chair and highest-ranking woman in the House of Representatives – to push for the kind of change in immigration policy America so desperately needs.
But no. For Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, this was all just a cue for yet another transparent political performance this past week, a tired act that was sadly emblematic of her party’s hypocrisy on immigration.
It’s worth remembering that just two months ago, Senate Republicans and Democrats and the Biden administration had worked out the most consequential immigration measure since the 1980s. It would have given the president greater authority to control the flood of people entering the country, overwhelmed and tightened up the overwhelmed process for seeking asylum, increased detention capacity, and added more border agents and judges to handle cases. It would also have expanded visas and green card availability and offered a pathway to citizenship for Afghans. The bill was more hardline on enforcement than many liberal Democrats and immigrant advocates would have liked, but in addressing many Republican demands for tougher policies, the measure gained sufficient GOP support in the Senate (though not the House, where Republicans want a much tougher bill that the Senate is sure to reject). And then it collapsed – after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump signaled that he didn’t want it to pass.
Of course he didn’t. Railing about America’s broken immigration system is one of his signature issues. And so there was Ms. Stefanik on Wednesday, paying a visit to the Champlain port of entry with the stated purpose of seeing the border crisis firsthand, to discuss “the unprecedented number of illegal crossings,” and to talk about staffing shortages.
The border crisis, that is, that her fellow Republicans prolonged by rejecting the immigration bill.
The illegal crossings, that is, that her fellow Republicans refused to address at Mr. Trump’s behest.
The staffing shortages, that is, that would have been alleviated, at least to a degree Republican negotiators found acceptable, had the Senate deal gone through.
There was a grinning Ms. Stefanik posing for publicity shots a few miles from where the bodies of two Senegalese men had been found the week before, frozen in the snow just south of the border. There was Ms. Stefanik railing about how – follow this, if you can – an increase in number of apprehensions of illegal immigrants was evidence of the administration’s failed “open borders” policy. While Ms. Stefanik engages in such gaslighting and political theater in her district and in Washington, down on the southern border vast numbers of immigrants are stuck in makeshift camps near San Diego where food, water and shelter are short. The Border Patrol is so overhauled it can’t immediately arrest and process them, leaving them in a legal limbo in which, the Biden administration argues, it’s not legally obligated to take humanitarian responsibility for them. The Border Patrol says it is working on speeding up the arrests.
While this may not be quite as bad as the worst of the Trump administration’s sadistic “zero-tolerance” border policies – including separating children from parents – it hardly befits a nation rooted in the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Out of office, Mr. Trump may not be able to inflict his cruelty on people seeking a better life, but sycophants like Ms. Stefanik have found a way to accomplish it with their hypocrisy – railing about border security even as they refuse to secure the border.
Ms. Stefanik on Thursday followed up her press release on the border with one bragging about her latest fundraising numbers.
Tell it to the frozen dead, Ms. Stefanik, and to thirsty, hungry children sleeping under the open sky.