Several of the United States’ most pressing policy problems have forged into a single issue in the Seattle area.
In Kent, a city of approximately 130,000 residents, more than 200 asylum-seekers set up an encampment in recent weeks on a grassy lot alongside a highway. “It’s very difficult,” one migrant from Congo told The Associated Press in French. “There’s not enough to eat. There’s not even a way to wash ourselves.”
Those problems long have surrounded discussions about homelessness. Now, they are combined with the issues of immigration, presidential power, the duties of the federal government and an inconsequential Congress. As immigration promises to be a central theme of this year’s presidential election, voters also should demand more from their congressional members.
President Joe Biden recently has made efforts to improve border security, limit illegal immigration and ease the impact of what could be a damaging issue for him in the November election.
Early this month, Biden issued an executive order declaring an emergency at the U.S. border with Mexico. He ordered a suspension of asylum protections, closing the border when the number of crossings reaches a certain level.
Critics say the order is too little, too late, amounting to nothing more than election pandering. White House officials say they have increased the number of migrants being deported or returned to Mexico to the highest level in a decade, and those numbers will increase under the new directive.
This week, Biden also announced a policy change that will protect undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens who have lived in this nation at least 10 years. The plan will provide a new path to permanent residency and, eventually, legal citizenship. “Biden’s border is still in crisis and his latest idea is amnesty,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said in response. “This will invite more chaos.”
While Republicans offer criticism and Democrats laud the policy decisions, they ignore the fact that the real problem rests with Congress.
Action to secure the border, better manage legal crossings and reduce the number of illegal crossings is necessary. But the fact that such policy swings rely on presidential orders is an embarrassing sign of federal dysfunction. For decades, members of both parties have used immigration policy as a wedge issue, allowing chaos to reign rather than taking action.
This is not a criticism designed to protect Biden. The Columbian has written the same thing editorially during the administrations of Barack Obama and Donald Trump. But Biden’s recent actions have been precipitated in part by Trump’s cynical scuttling of congressional efforts.
This year, Lankford took the lead in working with Senate Democrats to forge a comprehensive immigration bill. “The border security bill will put a huge number of new enforcement tools in the hands of a future administration and push the current administration to finally stop the illegal flow,” he said in February.
Trump, loath to support anything that would look like a victory for Biden, urged Republicans to reject the bipartisan bill. His acolytes did just that, preserving the chaos that Trump hopes to turn into an election victory.
Regardless of who occupies the White House or which leaders hold sway over their parties, an impotent Congress belies the very foundation of our constitutional government. When major policy decisions are dependent on executive orders rather than bipartisan negotiations, then all Americans lose.
Just ask the people of Kent.
