Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman analysis: best to address the issue head on
Washington, DC – Yesterday brought the welcome news that the Biden administration will phase out the use of Title 42. For analysis, please read the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman, titled, An abject Biden failure on immigration should prompt a real rethink. They conclude:
a better political approach might be to explain these challenges forthrightly to the public. Explain that this is a hard problem, that excluding all asylum seekers isn’t an answer, and that rationalizing the system is worth attempting, deserves public patience, and could produce a better outcome than mass expulsion has.
The use of Title 42, a 1944 public health law, to quickly expel migrants and block people from exercising their legal right to request asylum, was concocted by Stephen Miller to pursue Trump’s war on immigrants and refugees. But this war is not a vestige of the past. Republicans are working overtime to weaponize the Title 42 debate with scare tactics and falsehoods in hopes of scoring political points (see our take from yesterday: Four Key Points About GOP’s Political Attacks on Biden and the Border).
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Deputy Director of America’s Voice:
Republicans want to play politics and run on xenophobia, while Democrats are working to address tough challenges that respect the law and America’s self-description as a welcoming nation. Republicans began blaming Biden for the southern border months before he was even elected President. The administration is trying to build up an asylum system burned to the ground by Trump and Stephen Miller.
Instead of operating from a defensive crouch that cedes the debate to the GOP, Democrats need to confront the issue head-on and forcefully articulate their values and their vision to modernize an outdated and broken immigration system. And they need to call out the Republicans for their divisive and ugly attempts to demonize and dehumanize immigrants in their quest for power.”
Below, find key excerpts from the Sargent and Waldman analysis, “An abject Biden failure on immigration should prompt a real rethink”
“… There are no easy answers here for Democrats. But one way forward might be rooted in a recognition that using Title 42 to keep migrants out bought President Biden and Democrats no good will, either from Republicans or the public.
This policy didn’t work substantively or politically. Its rationale — that it’s needed for public health purposes — has been widely denounced by public-health experts as baseless. As policy for managing the border — which isn’t even supposed to be its rationale anyway — its success has been highly questionable. As the American Immigration Council has demonstrated, Title 42 has actually led to an explosion in repeat efforts by expelled migrants to cross the border, because under the rule, there is little penalty for trying. That has inflated raw numbers of encounters at the border
… Nor has this even worked politically for Biden. Republicans attacked Biden for months for having “open borders” even though huge numbers of migrants were being expelled without due process.
…[T]his will continue to be a profoundly difficult problem to manage. And the truth is, as long as that remains the case, Biden’s approval on the issue will likely remain in the doldrums. That is understandable: The public wants the problem handled, and rightly so. So a better political approach might be to explain these challenges forthrightly to the public. Explain that this is a hard problem, that excluding all asylum seekers isn’t an answer, and that rationalizing the system is worth attempting, deserves public patience, and could produce a better outcome than mass expulsion has.
…It’s been indefensible on the merits. It hasn’t bought Democrats any points from the public. And it has ceded the field to the Republican media machine without offering any clear direction to the American people about what Democrats hope for from our immigration system. It’s time to try something else.
- Read the new Medium post from Vanessa Cárdenas, Deputy Director of America’s Voice: “Title 42, Ukrainians and Other Refugees: “President Biden, You Have The Power To Fight Discrimination. Use It.”
- Read the America’s Voice assessment this week: “Four Key Points About GOP’s Political Attacks on Biden and the Border”
- Keep track of Republicans’ anti-immigrant campaign ads at https://gopadtracker.com/
