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Last Wednesday, President Joe Biden proposed “an immigration bill that would give legal status and a path to citizenship to anyone in the United States before Jan. 1 — an estimated 11 million people — and reduce the time that family members must wait outside the United States for green cards.” AP News
The right is critical of Biden’s plan.
“Biden doesn’t want to give temporary legal status to illegal immigrants. He wants to give them green cards and then, after a period of years, make them eligible for citizenship. This would precipitate a wave of follow-on immigration. Green-card holders can petition for spouses and minor children to come to the United States, while citizens can petition for parents and siblings, as well…
“It’s hard to exaggerate how sweeping this proposal is. It would apply not just to illegal immigrants who have been here for years and become embedded in their communities, but to illegal immigrants who showed up the day before yesterday — the cutoff for the amnesty is January 1, 2021…
“There is a good case for a carefully tailored amnesty for the illegal immigrants who have been here the longest, coupled with real enforcement measures like E-Verify and an exit-entry visa system. This is not even close to that. At least the proposal furthers Biden’s goal of unity in one respect. It should unite Republicans and all supporters of a sound immigration system in determined opposition.”
The Editors, National Review
“Biden proposes to legalize illegal immigrants while offering only vague promises of enforcement in return… Biden has already promised not to build any more of Trump’s big, beautiful, woefully incomplete wall — even though border fencing is a simple and effective way to keep people from crossing a border without authorization. Instead he wants to try other technologies, asking the Department of Homeland Security to figure out the particulars. There’s nothing wrong with expanding and experimenting with these approaches, of course, but this is not a great trade for amnesty. There’s simply too big a risk that it won’t work or won’t even really be tried…
“The other key aspect of controlling illegal immigration is interior enforcement: Many illegal immigrants come legally but overstay their visas, meaning they can’t be stopped at the border, and many employers are happy to hire illegal workers. Conservatives have long wanted to require employers to use a computer program called ‘E-Verify’ to make sure every hire is here legally, but there’s no sign of this from Biden.”
Robert Verbruggen, National Review
“When Biden initially announced his plan to grant amnesty to eleven million illegal aliens, he was using phrases such as ‘we’re going to…’ and ‘help is on the way.’ Now his Press Secretary is talking about the Biden bill as being ‘the base for discussions.’ The ‘help’ that was on the way may have lost the password for the GPS. Expectations are being lowered by the day, with some of the plan’s most ardent supporters admitting that the final product – if there even is one – will probably be ‘significantly more modest.’…
“The polling has shifted gradually on the subject of immigration reform, but it hasn’t shifted that much. Pretty much everyone is fine with people who immigrate to the United States legally and become naturalized, with majorities believing that their contributions to the nation are of significant value. But when it comes to illegal aliens, the numbers dip significantly… The most likely win that Biden might scrape through is probably some sort of formalization of DACA, offering a pathway to illegal aliens brought here as children with clean criminal records. That seems to enjoy enough broad support around the country that it could be managed. But blanket amnesty or a permanent end to deportations of criminal illegal aliens just isn’t going to fly.”
Jazz Shaw, Hot Air
Some argue, “For a critical mass of Republicans, the issue is simply put: No wall, no deal. For a critical mass of Democrats, the issue is simply put: No path to citizenship, no deal… Can each side compromise and concede on the must-have of the other and get to work? It would make sense. It would make a wonderful bipartisan effort. And it would demonstrate that compromise on thorny issues is indeed possible…
“Republican opponents will rightly point to the inevitable ‘magnet effect’ of any path to citizenship, arguing that it will only encourage people to come to the United States without permission or overstay their visas in hope of obtaining legal status. But this can be worked out in a comprehensive bargain that addresses both sides’ concerns. A completed wall, continued resourcing of the Border Patrol, and increased security at ports and tracking of visa-holders would send a different message. Technology has improved. The sieve can be closed.”
Hugh Hewitt, Washington Post
“Last week Mr. Biden signed an executive order to end remain-in-Mexico protocols—as he promised during the campaign. The signal sent is one of a more liberal policy toward weary, destitute migrants claiming asylum. This isn’t a good solution even if Mr. Biden’s heart is in the right place. Let’s remember that President Obama also faced chaos caused by asylum seekers in 2014, which led to the construction of chain-linked pens to detain migrants in groups: mothers with children, teenage boys, etc. Those pens were later dubbed ‘cages’ when the Trump administration used them to hold children separated from guardians under ‘zero tolerance.’…
“Mr. Biden wants a more humane approach to immigration than either of his predecessors. Yet he avoided border bedlam this month only because Mexico and Guatemala did the dirty work. Unless he plans to rely on those tactics in the long term, he needs a plan to deal, in an orderly fashion, with the large numbers of Central Americans who are fleeing violence and poverty in search of a better life…
“The only answer to this quandary is to open more legal pathways. Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration analyst at the Cato Institute, recommends an increase in the number of H-2 guest-worker visas for Central Americans since many asylum claimants are really migrants looking for work… Greater opportunity to work legally would break the vicious circle behind the chaos.”
Mary Anastasia O’Grady, Wall Street Journal
The left is generally supportive of Biden’s plan.
The left is generally supportive of Biden’s plan.
“The U.S. population growth rate in the just-ended decade was the lowest since the first national census in 1790, according to the Brookings Institution — lower even than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The number of Americans below the age of 18 actually shrank in the 2010s, by more than 1 million. That stagnation, the product of an aging population and historically low fertility rates, cannot be reversed by immigration alone. But it will certainly be exacerbated, and has been in the past four years, by a policy hostile to newcomers…
“What’s more, by proposing an eight-year path to citizenship for most of the nation’s 11 million unauthorized migrants — the centerpiece of his plan — Mr. Biden is attempting to align law and reality. By 2029, when they would be eligible for citizenship, most will have been in the United States for more than a quarter-century. At least 4 million are essential workers in construction, food processing, groceries, restaurants, agriculture and transportation — doing jobs critical to practically every American… Mr. Biden has laid out an immigration program that would genuinely put America first.”
Editorial Board, Washington Post
“According to a Pew Research Center survey published June 2020, 74% of Americans support granting a permanent legal status to those who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, a demographic known as Dreamers. Another Pew Research survey published in November 2019 found that 67% of Americans supported a pathway to citizenship for those who remain in the U.S. illegally.”
Jasmine Aguilera, Time
“A main argument against such ‘amnesty’ is that it encourages migrants to come in without permission in the hope of staying below the radar until the next amnesty comes along. But sweeping amnesties such as what Biden proposes are rare — the last major one came in the Reagan administration — and the reality is that our immigration enforcement has been ineffective for so long that the U.S. is now home — yes, home — to millions of people without authorization…
“Rousting them all, as the hard-liners advocate, would be impossible to achieve and damaging to the country. As of 2017, half of all unauthorized immigrants had lived in the U.S. for at least 15 years, according to the Pew Research Center, and their tenure has likely only increased since then. Many have American spouses, American dependents, and contribute to their communities and the economy (including owning businesses that employ Americans). There is nothing to be gained from kicking them out now. Immigration reform must reflect that reality while also ensuring that migrants who credibly pose a risk to public safety do not remain.”
Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times
Critics of the plan note that “many Democrats have embraced aerial drones, infrared cameras, motion sensors, radar, facial recognition, and artificial intelligence as more humane ways to reach the shared, if somewhat amorphous, goal of border security…
“There are already few limitations on the ability of immigration agents to access and use the information held in federal databases or to conduct additional surveillance when and where they see fit. Even then, the restrictions that do exist are easily sidestepped by going commercial. The DHS, for instance, simply buys phone geolocation data on the open market to avoid the hassle of obtaining a warrant…
“For over a decade, the DHS has ostensibly ascribed to the privacy-minded Fair Information Practice Principles, yet it continuously violates them with its unfettered data collection and usage. CBP’s own inspector general has criticized the department for not taking privacy seriously.”
Felipe de la Hoz, The Nation
“[Naureen Shah, senior advocacy and policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union] said Mr. Biden needs to be honest about the overreliance on memos and the lack of accountability for ICE and the Border Patrol. They enjoyed impunity for killings and other abuses under Mr. Obama as well as under Mr. Trump, she noted. ‘We actually have to limit the discretion of the officers and the agents who act on xenophobia and bigotry — and who do horrific things to human beings under the pretext of immigration enforcement,’ Ms. Shah said. ‘It’s not a matter of just appointing the right people. You’ve got an entrenched agency culture of abuse and impunity. It’s going to take a lot of oversight and accountability.’”
Jean Guerrero, New York Times
Regarding refugee policy, many point to the profusion of humanitarian crises worldwide to advocate for higher quotas: “Dadaab is home to more than 200,000 people — a city the size of Richmond, Va., or Spokane, Wash., except without electricity or running water. The camp was established in 1992, a year after neighboring Somalia collapsed into civil war and refugees streamed into Kenya. Twenty-nine years later, the mostly Somali residents of Dadaab, now including second- and third-generation refugees, are forbidden to work formal jobs or to find homes outside the camp. They cannot even construct permanent dwellings, since doing so would run counter to the camp’s official status as temporary…
“Over the years, refugees in Dadaab have clung to one hope: resettlement overseas, sometimes in Europe or Canada but mostly in the United States. Tens of thousands of Dadaab’s residents have come to the United States; in 2015, for instance, more than 3,000 people from the camp were resettled there…
“A mere eight refugees from Dadaab were resettled in the United States in 2018 and 14 in 2019. Even refugees with life-threatening illnesses were denied travel authorization to seek care in U.S. hospitals… Mr. Trump’s life-altering legacy will reverberate for generations of refugees. Repairing the damage to the refugee admissions program may take years.”
Ty McCormick, New York Times
