No surprise as do-nothing Republicans again choose politics over solutions
Republicans have once again chosen to do nothing to solve the immigration issue they loudly complain about, after months of good faith bipartisan negotiations in the Senate.
They had the opportunity to make history and pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill to help solve the problem of illegal immigration, the need for tighter security at the U.S.-Mexico border, and dealing with the issues of “Dreamers” in limbo in the country.
President Biden was so anxious to get aid to Ukraine and his friends in Israel that he and Democrats even supported congressional Republicans and their hard-right immigration agenda push.
The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, totaling $118 billion, proposed significant alterations in border policy. It allocated funds for the construction of additional border walls; extensive expansion of detention facilities; and recruitment of more Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, asylum officers, and immigration judges to alleviate the years-long backlog in asylum cases. Its aim was to expedite the asylum process, effectively curtailing the “catch and release” policy, under which migrants are released into the U.S. pending asylum hearings, in most instances. It was also intended to elevate the standard of evidence required to attain asylum status.
The bill also stated that temporary border emergency authority would be automatically activated by the Department of Homeland Security secretary if there is an average of 5,000 or more migrant encounters a day over seven consecutive days, or 8,500 or more such encounters on any single day.
The bill also earmarked increased funding to combat fentanyl trafficking and human trafficking.
Biden and congressional Democrats, surprisingly, agreed to all this, bending over backward to support enforcement legislation without inclusion of legalization provisions just to help Israel and Ukraine. For immigration hardliners in the Senate, their dreams had come through—they secured heightened enforcement without “amnesty.”
However, rather than seizing this historic opportunity, House Republicans and Puppet Master Trumpeto argued that the bill failed to meet their hardline wish list preferences and persuaded most Senate Republicans to forget about it even though such a deal is unlikely to resurface.
President Biden, who has alienated his base and a lot of Democrats with his own administration’s immigration policies, is now left holding the bag.
Republicans, meanwhile, led by the Grand Wizard, are now back to pushing their racist and xenophobic conspiratorial narrative on the “Great Replacement.” The narrative, rooted in white nationalism, posits without basis that a powerful cabal of elites is deliberately replacing white Americans with immigrants. Polls show many Republican voters believe this ignorance.
Biden was a fool to trust Republicans and to bend so far over that all he got is…well, screwed. It shows the GOP would rather play political football with the lives of immigrants before the November 2024 general elections than work for the good of voters and the taxpayers who pay their wages and actually solve the problems Republicans complain the loudest about.
Biden is left with only one choice: executive action on the border that could re-energize his base. It’s his only choice at this stage.
Felicia J. Persaud is the publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, a daily news outlet focusing on Black immigrant issues.
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