Thom Tillis helps craft a flawed — but worthy — immigration compromise

Thom Tillis is becoming a go-to for Democrats who want to pass difficult legislation.

On Monday, the Washington Post reported that North Carolina’s junior senator has partnered with Democrat Kyrsten Sinema to create an immigration reform framework that would please — and perhaps displease — both political parties.

The detailed reform bill hasn’t been released to the public, but the Post reports that the deal will speed up the processes that naturalize immigrants seeking asylum, as well as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. If passed, it would give 2 million dreamers a path to citizenship, and it would provide more resources to immigration officials so that asylum applications are processed quicker.

The proposed framework would also continue Title 42, a dismal immigration policy set in place at the start of the COVID pandemic that expels migrants seeking asylum from the United States to Mexico — even though that policy violates international laws that affirm the right to seek asylum in a foreign country. The framework also looks to speed up the process for expelling migrants who don’t qualify for asylum.

A compromise like this is a long shot. It’s also likely the only shot either party has of passing meaningful immigration reform in the next two years.

In January, Republicans will officially take control of the House, and potential majority leader Kevin McCarthy has said he would not look at any immigration reform until the border is “secure” — something that is both difficult to define and unlikely to be agreed upon by lawmakers. That means reform will again be on hold for at least the next two years.

Even now, the path is challenging. In the Senate, it’s unclear whether enough Republicans would be willing to override a filibuster and secure the votes needed to pass a framework like this. We’re glad, however, that Tillis and Sinema are trying. Compromise in politics isn’t a grand win for either side, but it’s the only way to get anything done; the alternative, of course, is nothing getting passed at all.

Tillis has been regularly willing to compromise in recent months, whether the bills are focused on gun control, same sex marriage, or immigration. He has been an advocate for DACA reform for years. In 2017, he introduced a bill that would give DACA recipients a 15-year path to citizenship. Last year, he was cited by Democrats as a potential partner for immigration reform measures, but he told Politico that he wouldn’t even support a version of his 2017 bill without any changes to border security.

It’s possible that Tillis is seeing the writing on the wall with immigration. Republicans haven’t been getting far politically by scaring Americans on immigration and border security — at least not in recent elections. It’s also possible that Tillis sees a chance to win moderate voters, including Latino voters, a group that has contributed to Republican Party wins in recent years.

Regardless of his motive, the framework could accomplish something immigration advocates have long called for — keeping DACA recipients from falling through the cracks in our broken immigration system. That overdue achievement would come with a bitter pill in the continuation of Title 42, which forces asylum seekers at the southern border to be expelled back to Mexico while they wait on the bureaucratic process. While Tillis and Sinema’s proposal apparently extends the policy for just another year, that additional 365 days would be another year of violating the international right that immigrants have to seek asylum.

Still, time is again running out on reform, and a last-ditch effort in a lame duck session is better than another year of DACA recipients waiting to see if the only home they’ve known will let them stay. We applaud Tillis and Sinema for taking this step, and we hope North Carolina’s representatives recognize the gains this compromise would bring to immigrants and U.S. employers.