Dreamers. JVL and/or Tim were asking about what should be the hill that Democrats are willing to die on.
It should be Dreamers. I honestly haven't followed Democratic policy on immigration very closely, but I am under the impression that until they needed funds for Ukraine, that Republican refusal to compromise on a path to citizenship for Dreamers was key to killing any compromise on the border.
Well now, Dreamers should be the rallying cry for Democrats. They are already vetted as law abiding, to the extreme. They have never broken any immigration laws, being under the age of majority when they were brought or sent to the U.S. by the adults in their lives. Democrats could press home every single time that it's Republicans who refused to compromise on bills by refusing to give these young adults legal status and a path to citizenship. Democrats should press home every time that the U.S. has invested money and resources educating these kids, that these kids are steeped in American culture, that these young adults have already shown that they are integrated- educated, English speaking, integrated, culturally similar, this is the holy grail of the ideal immigrant, that the growth fuels GDP crowd is always saying that we need.
I want Dreamers to be the face of the Democratic immigration argument, and the one thing they won't compromise on.
an “unprecedented” deal with Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, to house violent American criminals and deportees of any nationality—“including those of U.S. citizenship and legal residents”
“The U.S. is absolutely prohibited from deporting U.S. citizens, whether they are incarcerated or not”
David Frum has been telling it to us straight, including here at the Bulwark, since at least 2019:
"If liberals insist that only fascists will enforce borders, then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals refuse to do."
And that's where we are now. You can't answer something with nothing, and that's all the Democrats have done up to now. Coming up with a program that matches legal immigration to the needs of the country's development, a program that the United States has the same right as every other country in the world to have, and pushing it consistently, will do more that's constructive than 10,000 heartbreaking, illustrated anecdotes about illegal immigrants having to face the consequences of their own bad decisions.
The American people aren't opposed to legal immigration. They will not tolerate the position of the Left of the Democratic Party that the only acceptable policy is a 21st Century Ellis Island open to all comers, or the notion that we don't have the right to control our own borders because our society is somehow uniquely tainted and unworthy. Both of those views should go back to the ashcan of history where they belong, permanently.
Sorry but the Dems in Congress have been open to compromise but in Trump's first term and in Biden's last 2 years. Yes the left is silly. And PS the right in the GOP is silly. But the open borders is a talking point. PS - simply hiring more judges when Trump started his first term would have helped a lot - but he specifically did not want that.
PS the largest numbers of illegals now are Indians and many come legally as tourists but overstay. And if you want to meet an illegal alien go to a nail salon in Queens or Jersey City. These too came via plane, cleared customs and stayed.
No need to be sorry. Some of your statements are right, some of them are wrong, but none of them are stupid or -- I think -- ill-intentioned.
To start with where you're right, yes, the largest number of illegals are overstays. Whether they're Irish in Boston, Poles in Chicago, or Indians, well, anywhere, their employers should be subject to sanctions and they should be deported. So far, we apparently agree.
Hiring A LOT more judges would certainly have been a huge help. Trump has always been a liar and never operated in good faith, so he did what was to be expected. I'm grateful for the good things that Biden accomplished, but not accomplishing this was one of his big fails, along with not reforming the Emergencies and Insurrection Acts. So now we're where we are.
As for the silliness of the Left and Right ends of the horseshoe, certainly I agree; if anything, I think that you're being kind.
Now, on "the Dems in Congress [being] open to compromise", I beg to differ. My consistent observation was that they were willing only to "negotiate" border security as part of an overall immigration policy package. That was always a non-starter, and should have been: border security is an essential attribute of sovereignty, not just another policy point, and it is and should be non-negotiable to anybody. I would have voted for Harris anyway, but I was especially happy to do so because she promised to enact the Lankford bill. that would have been a good start. Too bad the realization came three or four years too late. So now we get what David Frum warned us about for at least two years, and no progress. We can and should have a real debate on immigration policy, but it's important enough to be debated on its own merits, as a set of policy issues, on the US side of a secure border.
I purposely avoided using the term "open borders" in my comment because I know how much it triggers most people on the Left. I don't understand that and it seems more than a little disingenuous to me, but I'd rather discuss the issues, and not get bogged down in the semantics. That's why I referred to a "21st Century Ellis Island" policy. That's what I've always heard with minor variations from Congressional Democrats, and that's where I think, after reading all of his newsletters that Mr. Carrasquillo is coming from. You can read it from various people in these very Comments by just scrolling down. If you think it, you should own it; if not, you should deny it. But please stop trying to dismiss it, whatever you prefer to call it, as if it were so outlandish as to be beneath your consideration. It's not, and it's not a good look, at the very least.
I'd like to think that Democrats would have reached a compromise bill earlier that added more border security and enforcement if Republicans had been willing to compromise on a clear path to citizenship for Dreamers- but Republicans refused to budge on that. I want that to be the point that Democrats refuse to budge on- no democratic support for Republican immigration bills unless there is an expedited path to citizenship for them that can't be revoked by executive order.
Border security cannot be held hostage to anything, any more than national defense or delivering the mails can be: it's a basic function of government and a fundamental requirement of national sovereignty. That was the lesson that Democrats took far too long to learn, and seem to have forgotten again immediately after the last election.
The line of reasoning that called the border crisis bogus and concluded that holding border security hostage was a smart response is the Democratic strategy that gave us Trump 2.0, as David Frum and many others predicted that it would. Have you forgotten how President Biden "couldn't do anything about the border on his own authority because he needed cooperation from Congress" for over three years -- until suddenly he could act after all and he didn't really need Congress at all? Unfortunately that revelation came to him far too late to save Harris, and to save us from the current disaster. Our choices have never been border security OR immigration reform: they've always been border security WITH immigration reform, or border security alone. Until the Democrats wise up on that, we're stuck with Trump.
But it could get worse. The real nightmare scenario is that the electorate is satisfied enough with Trump's actions on the border that he's rewarded with larger majorities instead of losses in the midterms, and we get a new Congress willing to enact Steven Miller's form of "immigration reform". I don't doubt that he has a detailed bill in his desk drawer ready to go, if the time ever seems right. Then you'll get your wish for a new immigration system that's immune from Executive Orders, but you and I won't like it.
The Rs have been campaigning very effectively since the 80s. The Ds haven't done so in terms of defining themselves themselves since... the 1970s? All successful Ds since then have defined themselves using right-wing "values" and distancing themselves from being too "liberal" or "progressive"
Democrats have to catch up with the Trumpified enablers and beneficiaries so there are at least dueling narratives widely available to Americans via the current landscape of hundreds of balkanized media outlets. The Biden/Harris apparent reliance upon Americans consuming legacy media with some allegiance to being objective and a commitment to factual accuracy wasn't a successful strategy for the 2024 election. Trump has been beating up on CBS' 60 Minutes nonstop. Profits driven by engagement time that rises with enraging clickbait seems the only successful business model. Social media tech behemoth algorithms direct American media consumers to click bait and then corral them in a doom loop of ideological self-reinforcing group speak. Sigh.
For years, Trump has been talking about immigration in broad strokes, so that anyone who immigrates to the U.S. from non-European countries (legal or not) is somehow deviant ("They're eating the pets"), subversive (spying for China, Iran, or whatever country is seen as an adversary), or here to replace "us" (white folks).
I was curious about legislative attempts to reform the immigration system post-1965, and, except for tinkering around the edges, nothing significant has been able to become law since 1986 (IRCA). I searched for some info on W's and Obama's attempts at CIR (Comprehensive Immigration Reform), and there's a 2013 article (publicly available) published in the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality that notes:
"While IRCA succeeded in legalizing nearly three million undocumented immigrants, the restrictionist elements of the legislation failed to prevent a massive new population of undocumented immigrants from beginning to form. IRCA’s failure to prevent undocumented immigration created a major problem for Obama’s CIR aspirations. This was because many legislators believed that any new CIR legislation would similarly fail to prevent undocumented immigration. Moreover, given the much larger population of undocumented immigrants, it could allow the legalization of an undocumented population nearly four times larger than that legalized by IRCA."
So, the fear is that IRCA not only failed to prevent undocumented migration into the U.S., it also made three million undocumented folks into legal residents -- with a presumed pathway to citizenship. Any CIR legislation is a no-go for many in Congress because of these elements in IRCA (i.e., lack of undocumented enforcement and a looming threat of making "illegals" into voting citizens).
So, what's left to address immigration issues in the U.S.?
Well, without good-faith efforts to negotiate a CIR in Congress and the Executive Branch, we're left with a reality TV show of raids, arrests, detentions, deportation, tariff threats, and a desire to completely close the border to anything except the movement of goods.
Ted - I remember Simpson-Mazzoli and the sense at that time that Reagan hadn’t solved the issues. Maybe a stopgap. But success would depend on pursuing action against employers of undocumented workers plus more effective border enforcement. Those never came.
Instead came NAFTA, economic disruptions for working class people in US & Mexico, climate changes, posturing & grandstanding…
“without good-faith efforts” has been the subtitle of US immigration & border policy for decades.
J AZ, effective border enforcement would likely work better if there was more employer enforcement. The lobbying against employer enforcement is intense, so what ends up being the status quo is the mess we're in.
TikTok is the next target for MAGA propaganda take over. Trump wil,behind the scenes, only allow sycophantic buyers into the auction. He will hold the ability, via Republican amendment, to suspend TikTok for “security” reasons if it doesn’t promote enough MAGA garbage
"We’re going to have to suck it up, it’s really going to get tough. They will tug at our emotions. Stand strong, America! It’s for the greater good." I can find you some quotes from Heinrich Himmler to members of the SS concerning the Holocaust which are eerily similar. This is not to equate mass deportations with the Holocaust, it is to exemplify that one can make patriotic sounding statements which are both morally reprehensible and unethical.
Having a conversation and media campaign about the deleterious effects of immigration as a vehicle to comprehensively overhaul immigration is a positive thing, using the campaign to justify inhumane and likely illegal treatment of immigrants is something else entirely.
Adrian, your posts seem to always turn on a light for me. This time, your spotlight on MAGA propaganda about immigration also illuminated what was bothering me about a local op-ed about homelessness and housing affordability. It’s another MAGA approach that completely bypasses real people. Thank you.
I am so very ashamed of the United States - and of my generation (Boomer) who had the best of everything in our youth and have managed to be the architects of its destruction. I watched with dismay when the 80s rolled around and greed became a virtue; we lost our sense of community, our sense of some form of civic duty, and just wanted to be entertained and purchase cheap goods at WalMart. Not sure what this has to do with the topic at hand. I'm just ashamed and sad today. ...But don't worry! I'll be at Senator Cornyn's office tomorrow along with many, many others to keep up the good fight!
We Boomers also had some wins that were so successful the Republicans have to get rid of them before they can establish a dictatorship. The rights of women have grown by leaps and bounds. I started as a reporter in 1968 and I was the only woman and/or the first woman in the first three newsrooms I worked in. Now it’s utterly normal to have accomplished women working in newsrooms and just about every other occupation. Our generation made many advances in every field. Life expectancy is up… although lately it has started to decrease. I know things look gloomy but look at our kids and grandkids… they are intelligent, hard working, living, caring, responsible. They will find a way through this just as our generation found our way and built upon what our parents left to us. The pendulum swings away… but it swings back. Even now in America, ordinary people are beginning to stand up and demonstrate against the wrong that is happening. Feeling glum? Go join them. Phone your elected representatives. March. Shout. Recruit your friends. This ain’t over yet!
Well, he's green lighted the cabinet picks so far so I don't have a lot of faith that his integrity will trump his allegiance to the "Republican" party.
Dreamers. JVL and/or Tim were asking about what should be the hill that Democrats are willing to die on.
It should be Dreamers. I honestly haven't followed Democratic policy on immigration very closely, but I am under the impression that until they needed funds for Ukraine, that Republican refusal to compromise on a path to citizenship for Dreamers was key to killing any compromise on the border.
Well now, Dreamers should be the rallying cry for Democrats. They are already vetted as law abiding, to the extreme. They have never broken any immigration laws, being under the age of majority when they were brought or sent to the U.S. by the adults in their lives. Democrats could press home every single time that it's Republicans who refused to compromise on bills by refusing to give these young adults legal status and a path to citizenship. Democrats should press home every time that the U.S. has invested money and resources educating these kids, that these kids are steeped in American culture, that these young adults have already shown that they are integrated- educated, English speaking, integrated, culturally similar, this is the holy grail of the ideal immigrant, that the growth fuels GDP crowd is always saying that we need.
I want Dreamers to be the face of the Democratic immigration argument, and the one thing they won't compromise on.
He told us his plans. We should have been scrambling long before now.
Appreciate all you do. This was a great piece. Thank you for keeping me informed.
Unserious people can still do serious damage.
an “unprecedented” deal with Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, to house violent American criminals and deportees of any nationality—“including those of U.S. citizenship and legal residents”
“The U.S. is absolutely prohibited from deporting U.S. citizens, whether they are incarcerated or not”
David Frum has been telling it to us straight, including here at the Bulwark, since at least 2019:
"If liberals insist that only fascists will enforce borders, then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals refuse to do."
And that's where we are now. You can't answer something with nothing, and that's all the Democrats have done up to now. Coming up with a program that matches legal immigration to the needs of the country's development, a program that the United States has the same right as every other country in the world to have, and pushing it consistently, will do more that's constructive than 10,000 heartbreaking, illustrated anecdotes about illegal immigrants having to face the consequences of their own bad decisions.
The American people aren't opposed to legal immigration. They will not tolerate the position of the Left of the Democratic Party that the only acceptable policy is a 21st Century Ellis Island open to all comers, or the notion that we don't have the right to control our own borders because our society is somehow uniquely tainted and unworthy. Both of those views should go back to the ashcan of history where they belong, permanently.
Sorry but the Dems in Congress have been open to compromise but in Trump's first term and in Biden's last 2 years. Yes the left is silly. And PS the right in the GOP is silly. But the open borders is a talking point. PS - simply hiring more judges when Trump started his first term would have helped a lot - but he specifically did not want that.
PS the largest numbers of illegals now are Indians and many come legally as tourists but overstay. And if you want to meet an illegal alien go to a nail salon in Queens or Jersey City. These too came via plane, cleared customs and stayed.
No need to be sorry. Some of your statements are right, some of them are wrong, but none of them are stupid or -- I think -- ill-intentioned.
To start with where you're right, yes, the largest number of illegals are overstays. Whether they're Irish in Boston, Poles in Chicago, or Indians, well, anywhere, their employers should be subject to sanctions and they should be deported. So far, we apparently agree.
Hiring A LOT more judges would certainly have been a huge help. Trump has always been a liar and never operated in good faith, so he did what was to be expected. I'm grateful for the good things that Biden accomplished, but not accomplishing this was one of his big fails, along with not reforming the Emergencies and Insurrection Acts. So now we're where we are.
As for the silliness of the Left and Right ends of the horseshoe, certainly I agree; if anything, I think that you're being kind.
Now, on "the Dems in Congress [being] open to compromise", I beg to differ. My consistent observation was that they were willing only to "negotiate" border security as part of an overall immigration policy package. That was always a non-starter, and should have been: border security is an essential attribute of sovereignty, not just another policy point, and it is and should be non-negotiable to anybody. I would have voted for Harris anyway, but I was especially happy to do so because she promised to enact the Lankford bill. that would have been a good start. Too bad the realization came three or four years too late. So now we get what David Frum warned us about for at least two years, and no progress. We can and should have a real debate on immigration policy, but it's important enough to be debated on its own merits, as a set of policy issues, on the US side of a secure border.
I purposely avoided using the term "open borders" in my comment because I know how much it triggers most people on the Left. I don't understand that and it seems more than a little disingenuous to me, but I'd rather discuss the issues, and not get bogged down in the semantics. That's why I referred to a "21st Century Ellis Island" policy. That's what I've always heard with minor variations from Congressional Democrats, and that's where I think, after reading all of his newsletters that Mr. Carrasquillo is coming from. You can read it from various people in these very Comments by just scrolling down. If you think it, you should own it; if not, you should deny it. But please stop trying to dismiss it, whatever you prefer to call it, as if it were so outlandish as to be beneath your consideration. It's not, and it's not a good look, at the very least.
I'd like to think that Democrats would have reached a compromise bill earlier that added more border security and enforcement if Republicans had been willing to compromise on a clear path to citizenship for Dreamers- but Republicans refused to budge on that. I want that to be the point that Democrats refuse to budge on- no democratic support for Republican immigration bills unless there is an expedited path to citizenship for them that can't be revoked by executive order.
Border security cannot be held hostage to anything, any more than national defense or delivering the mails can be: it's a basic function of government and a fundamental requirement of national sovereignty. That was the lesson that Democrats took far too long to learn, and seem to have forgotten again immediately after the last election.
Republicans held it hostage and got rewarded for it, so it's either not an crisis, or a good strategy, or both.
The line of reasoning that called the border crisis bogus and concluded that holding border security hostage was a smart response is the Democratic strategy that gave us Trump 2.0, as David Frum and many others predicted that it would. Have you forgotten how President Biden "couldn't do anything about the border on his own authority because he needed cooperation from Congress" for over three years -- until suddenly he could act after all and he didn't really need Congress at all? Unfortunately that revelation came to him far too late to save Harris, and to save us from the current disaster. Our choices have never been border security OR immigration reform: they've always been border security WITH immigration reform, or border security alone. Until the Democrats wise up on that, we're stuck with Trump.
But it could get worse. The real nightmare scenario is that the electorate is satisfied enough with Trump's actions on the border that he's rewarded with larger majorities instead of losses in the midterms, and we get a new Congress willing to enact Steven Miller's form of "immigration reform". I don't doubt that he has a detailed bill in his desk drawer ready to go, if the time ever seems right. Then you'll get your wish for a new immigration system that's immune from Executive Orders, but you and I won't like it.
Republicans: “It’s not enough to win the campaign—we have to keep campaigning effectively for our agenda”
ME - if this is a fight for hearts and minds, then WE need to campaign as effectively. Every day. Every way
The Rs have been campaigning very effectively since the 80s. The Ds haven't done so in terms of defining themselves themselves since... the 1970s? All successful Ds since then have defined themselves using right-wing "values" and distancing themselves from being too "liberal" or "progressive"
Democrats have to catch up with the Trumpified enablers and beneficiaries so there are at least dueling narratives widely available to Americans via the current landscape of hundreds of balkanized media outlets. The Biden/Harris apparent reliance upon Americans consuming legacy media with some allegiance to being objective and a commitment to factual accuracy wasn't a successful strategy for the 2024 election. Trump has been beating up on CBS' 60 Minutes nonstop. Profits driven by engagement time that rises with enraging clickbait seems the only successful business model. Social media tech behemoth algorithms direct American media consumers to click bait and then corral them in a doom loop of ideological self-reinforcing group speak. Sigh.
The right, including Hooman, are projecting war at the border. They will start it!
For years, Trump has been talking about immigration in broad strokes, so that anyone who immigrates to the U.S. from non-European countries (legal or not) is somehow deviant ("They're eating the pets"), subversive (spying for China, Iran, or whatever country is seen as an adversary), or here to replace "us" (white folks).
I was curious about legislative attempts to reform the immigration system post-1965, and, except for tinkering around the edges, nothing significant has been able to become law since 1986 (IRCA). I searched for some info on W's and Obama's attempts at CIR (Comprehensive Immigration Reform), and there's a 2013 article (publicly available) published in the Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality that notes:
"While IRCA succeeded in legalizing nearly three million undocumented immigrants, the restrictionist elements of the legislation failed to prevent a massive new population of undocumented immigrants from beginning to form. IRCA’s failure to prevent undocumented immigration created a major problem for Obama’s CIR aspirations. This was because many legislators believed that any new CIR legislation would similarly fail to prevent undocumented immigration. Moreover, given the much larger population of undocumented immigrants, it could allow the legalization of an undocumented population nearly four times larger than that legalized by IRCA."
Link to full article here: https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=ijlse
So, the fear is that IRCA not only failed to prevent undocumented migration into the U.S., it also made three million undocumented folks into legal residents -- with a presumed pathway to citizenship. Any CIR legislation is a no-go for many in Congress because of these elements in IRCA (i.e., lack of undocumented enforcement and a looming threat of making "illegals" into voting citizens).
So, what's left to address immigration issues in the U.S.?
Well, without good-faith efforts to negotiate a CIR in Congress and the Executive Branch, we're left with a reality TV show of raids, arrests, detentions, deportation, tariff threats, and a desire to completely close the border to anything except the movement of goods.
Ted - I remember Simpson-Mazzoli and the sense at that time that Reagan hadn’t solved the issues. Maybe a stopgap. But success would depend on pursuing action against employers of undocumented workers plus more effective border enforcement. Those never came.
Instead came NAFTA, economic disruptions for working class people in US & Mexico, climate changes, posturing & grandstanding…
“without good-faith efforts” has been the subtitle of US immigration & border policy for decades.
J AZ, effective border enforcement would likely work better if there was more employer enforcement. The lobbying against employer enforcement is intense, so what ends up being the status quo is the mess we're in.
TikTok is the next target for MAGA propaganda take over. Trump wil,behind the scenes, only allow sycophantic buyers into the auction. He will hold the ability, via Republican amendment, to suspend TikTok for “security” reasons if it doesn’t promote enough MAGA garbage
"We’re going to have to suck it up, it’s really going to get tough. They will tug at our emotions. Stand strong, America! It’s for the greater good." I can find you some quotes from Heinrich Himmler to members of the SS concerning the Holocaust which are eerily similar. This is not to equate mass deportations with the Holocaust, it is to exemplify that one can make patriotic sounding statements which are both morally reprehensible and unethical.
Maybe when Trump and his cronies start deporting the residents of Starr County, the 60% who voted for him will realize he is after all of them.
Having a conversation and media campaign about the deleterious effects of immigration as a vehicle to comprehensively overhaul immigration is a positive thing, using the campaign to justify inhumane and likely illegal treatment of immigrants is something else entirely.
My friend, I don't fear so much the supposed “deleterious effects of immigration” but I am right there with you on your last clause
Adrian, your posts seem to always turn on a light for me. This time, your spotlight on MAGA propaganda about immigration also illuminated what was bothering me about a local op-ed about homelessness and housing affordability. It’s another MAGA approach that completely bypasses real people. Thank you.
I am so very ashamed of the United States - and of my generation (Boomer) who had the best of everything in our youth and have managed to be the architects of its destruction. I watched with dismay when the 80s rolled around and greed became a virtue; we lost our sense of community, our sense of some form of civic duty, and just wanted to be entertained and purchase cheap goods at WalMart. Not sure what this has to do with the topic at hand. I'm just ashamed and sad today. ...But don't worry! I'll be at Senator Cornyn's office tomorrow along with many, many others to keep up the good fight!
We Boomers also had some wins that were so successful the Republicans have to get rid of them before they can establish a dictatorship. The rights of women have grown by leaps and bounds. I started as a reporter in 1968 and I was the only woman and/or the first woman in the first three newsrooms I worked in. Now it’s utterly normal to have accomplished women working in newsrooms and just about every other occupation. Our generation made many advances in every field. Life expectancy is up… although lately it has started to decrease. I know things look gloomy but look at our kids and grandkids… they are intelligent, hard working, living, caring, responsible. They will find a way through this just as our generation found our way and built upon what our parents left to us. The pendulum swings away… but it swings back. Even now in America, ordinary people are beginning to stand up and demonstrate against the wrong that is happening. Feeling glum? Go join them. Phone your elected representatives. March. Shout. Recruit your friends. This ain’t over yet!
Hang in there Rebecca! Be fierce, wise, & strong of spirit
Both Jasmine Crockett and Colin Allread have spoken highly of Senator Cornyn and his willingness to work bipartisanly. I hope he lives up to it.
Well, he's green lighted the cabinet picks so far so I don't have a lot of faith that his integrity will trump his allegiance to the "Republican" party.