The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
We have a crisis at the border that requires a functional U.S. Congress, and we don’t have one. President Joe Biden can only do what he can, and only of late has he sounded resolute.
The “Republican-controlled” House of Representatives has no one in control. It is leaderless, and the possibility that the election-denier Jim Jordan could become the next House speaker leaves America undefended.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, who was the No. 3 House Republican until she refused to endorse Donald Trump’s 2020 election lies, says that Jordan’s rise to that job would mark the end of our constitutional government. Former Republican Speaker John Boehner called him a “legislative terrorist.” Jordan is also intellectually vacant.
None of this bodes well for America’s ability to end the migration crisis. The MAGA Republicans, for all their hot rhetoric, have proved useless in addressing the problem. Their business is fundraising off of clown shows. And deep in his dark heart, dear leader Donald Trump likes cheap labor.
Oh, Trump may say cruel and inhumane things about immigrants to serve his main objective, which is to get quoted a lot. But as president, he swatted down proposals that would have required employers to check the immigration status of all new hires. He didn’t build the wall. And although the surge in asylum-seekers over the Southern border has gotten worse of late, it started gaining steam under him.
Republican dysfunction does not excuse Democratic inaction. At the end of 2022, when Democrats had a narrow majority in the Senate, they failed to aggressively push a bipartisan bill that would have raised funding for border security and expanded the ability to decide asylum claims quickly.
The bill failed to get the 10 Republican votes needed to achieve a filibuster-proof vote. The immigration mess is a good issue for them. Why fix it?
Biden now vows to add to the border wall, which is both smart politics and good policy. A wall at popular crossings makes sense.
By sending buses of migrants to New York and other liberal cities, the governors of Florida and Texas may have orchestrated an ugly stunt, but they did get the attention of officials.
The cost of dealing with immigration crises belongs with the federal government, not New York City, Denver, Chicago, or Eagle Pass, Texas.
The immediate solution is to hire a large number of asylum judges and other trained personnel to quickly decide whether a claim of persecution is valid or not. It is not to let them stay for five or more years until a judge is found to hear their case.
That’s today’s need. The eventual goal must be to create a rational immigration system. For that, we’re going to need two functioning political parties. We now have only one.
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