EDITORIAL: Time to tackle immigration reform
Oct. 7—Kevin McCarthy says if voters give Republicans control of the U.S. House of Representatives, his party will solve the immigration issue once and for all.
Don't count on it. The House minority leader is offering the same political pandering many in his party have been offering for years.
"We've watched what's happened to our border," McCarthy said in rolling out his plan, "the millions of people who are just walking across, people on the terrorist watch list. But now we're watching it create every community to be a border community."
Though McCarthy's "Commitment to America" calls for securing the southern border, it offers only vague policy solutions and nothing in the way of actual reform.
The plan resurrects a promise from former President Donald J. Trump, insisting that building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border will dramatically reduce illegal immigration. The plan does not mention that illegal immigration actually rose by 14% during the Trump administration or that Republicans have been blocking comprehensive immigration reform legislation for decades.
In other words, we'll be in for more of the same. Lots of fiery rhetoric. No real action.
Voters should demand more.
Angela Kelley, a former senior counselor at the Department of Homeland Security, summed up the challenge facing Democrats in a recent interview with NBC News.
"I think the administration is sometimes unsure how to articulate an answer to a complex problem when it is juxtaposed against a bumper sticker or a callous trick," she said.
There is hope for compromise.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn has been promoting a bill he introduced with Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to help improve the efficiency of border screening and processing, and NBC News reports that lawmakers in both the House and Senate have had discussions about expanding visas for immigrants working in agriculture, construction and certain other crucial industries.
Sinema discussed the issue in a recent speech.
"We've been stymied by political edges on both ends of the spectrum," she said. "One party that demands only border walls and security and another party that wants amnesty for millions of people. The reality is that we have to address both our security needs and our workforce needs."
President Joe Biden should take the lead on this issue.
He sent Congress a comprehensive bill to overhaul the immigration system on his first day in office, but he hasn't done a whole lot since to coax Congress into taking action.
Biden and his party should hand Republicans an ultimatum: Either join in finding a bipartisan solution to this crisis or be cast as nativists determined to block migration to the United States.
The time for partisan rhetoric is behind us. Our representatives in Washington need to stop posturing and actually roll up their sleeves to get something done.
