Partisans on both sides used immigration to beat one another up during the Trump presidency, but President Biden has a new opening for bipartisan cooperation. Now we’re going to find out if the Democrats want to reform immigration or keep using it as a political stick.
Mr. Biden made an opening offer Thursday with a bill from Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey and California Representative Linda Sanchez. The bill is dead when it arrives in Congress because it does not improve border security and allows the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants to legalize more or less blankets. “We cannot start with concessions from the start. We’re not going to start with two million undocumented people, but with 11 million, ”said Menendez. “We will never win an argument that we do not have the courage to take.”
GOP restrictionists also introduced immigration laws, which were essentially political statements, during the Trump presidency. They weren’t going anywhere. The lesson for Democrats is that they will not win an argument in Congress or in public without making concessions to the reality of the other party and immigration.
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Start with the eight year walk of the law to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and three years for some farm workers and young adults who were illegally brought into the country as children. No matter what restrictionists say, most of these people are never deported. Many have been here for decades and are major contributors to the economy.
The young adults known as dreamers are especially personable because they do not knowingly break immigration laws and live in legal limbo. Barack Obama granted them temporary legal status and work permits. As we pointed out earlier, he did not have the legal authority to do this, as the Constitution gives Congress the authority to regulate immigration. But Congress also has a moral need to give a respite after the government has asked it to step out of the shadows.
