Vanessa Cardenas: “Producing an immigration breakthrough is not only a moral imperative, it is a political imperative”
Washington, DC – The following is a statement from Vanessa Cardenas, Deputy Director of America’s Voice.
During the remaining months before the 2022 midterms, President Biden and Democrats need to deliver on an immigration breakthrough. Democrats cannot afford to leave votes on the table with a disillusioned base. The way Democrats win on immigration and neutralize Republican attacks is to lean in and show with confidence that Democrats have better, more popular and achievable solutions on immigration than the other guys. Tonight’s State of the Union address is a good place to start.
President Biden and the Democrats have options: enacting legislation with the support of the Senate parliamentarian, ignoring and going around the obstruction of the Senate parliamentarian and, taking executive action such as new TPS designations and redesignations. Biden and the Democrats should adopt an all-of-the-above strategy to deliver on their promised immigration policy breakthroughs.
Producing an immigration breakthrough is not only a moral imperative, it is a political imperative. This week, the NILC Immigrant Justice Fund released polling underscoring that Democrats’ base voters are turned off by Biden’s failure to deliver promised immigration reforms. As NBC News recapped, ‘In the NILC-commissioned survey, Trump notched much higher marks with his base on how he handled immigration issues (86 percent positive) than Biden did with his (54 percent approval).’
Republicans have raised the stakes as they continue to throw around ever more dangerous and ugly xenophobic conspiracy theories about Democratic plots to replace White people and foment violent talk of immigrant invasions. Republican false attacks on Biden’s immigration record are a centerpiece of their messaging. The GOP sympathizes with the wrong side in the global struggle between fascist authoritarianism and inclusive democracy, which adds urgency to the demand that Democrats step up to the challenge.
The President and Democrats need to demonstrate confidence in America’s desire to remain an inclusive democracy, where immigrants and refugees have a place at the table building a stronger nation and stronger economy where opportunity flourishes.
