Trade the Southern Border for Ukraine and Israel
Parts of the Mexican border are already closed due to the influx of migrants. Puerto Peñasco or Rocky Point and Lukeville crossing, Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, San Ysidro, etc. and several rail crossings.
Reader Jim Han offered up a Thom Hartmann commentary suggesting Dems take the deal Repubs are offering up. Thom also points the finger at Repub commentary claiming a Biden policy opened southern borders to all who can get to it. Not true according to Thom.
Just a few bad and political actors making up stories about migration at the southern border and aggravating the situation with their (being polite) stories. The following portion is taken from a recent Thom commentary:
“Should Democrats Trade the Southern Border for Ukraine?” Daily Take, by Thom Hartmann. Thom is an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressive political commentator.
If the GOP’s price for aid for Ukraine and Israel is to stop the flow of immigrants into this country for year or so, I say pay the ransom…
This is, after all, foundational to the “great replacement theory” that Trump, Alex Jones, David Duke, and multiple Republican politicians have been endorsing ever since “very fine people” were chanting “Jews will not replace us [with Black or Hispanic people]” in Charlottesville.
Republican rhetoric on the issue has become so predictable that Richard Haas, normally a reasonable voice on foreign policy issues, had to be corrected on Fareed Zakaria’s GPS show yesterday when he said that Democrats favor an “open border policy.”
In fact, it’s Libertarians who believe all countries should have open borders, or that more immigrants coming to America is a good thing because it increases the supply of low-wage labor that businesses so love. Rand Paul, for example, has sponsored legislation that would increase immigration to the US.
But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from inviting as many people as possible to come to America, by proclaiming that our border is “wide open” because, they say, of Democratic Party policies.
While no elected Democrat I can find has ever called for “open borders,” Republicans keep saying that Democrats are for open borders and that they’ve gotten their way and the southern border is now wide open.
Thus, while it’s true that two factors have driven a lot of migration over the past few decades (climate change wiping out farmland, and political dysfunction and gangs caused by the Reagan administration illegally devastating the governments of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), the main driver of would-be immigrants and refugees today is the Republican Party itself.
Lacking any actual, substantive economic issues to run on, the GOP has decided to fall back on a familiar ploy: scare white people that brown people are coming for them and/or their jobs. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, I remember well how the GOP’s pitch to white people was that Black people wanted “our” jobs; now it’s brown people from south of the border.
Trump did this in the most crude, vulgar, and racist way possible from his first entrance into the Republican primary through the end of his presidency and to this day. It frightened enough white voters that it got him into office once, and the GOP is hoping they can repeat that trick in 2024.
In doing so, they’re playing with fire. Their lies about American policies are causing refugees to put their lives and their families in danger.
The truth is that Joe Biden never “opened” our southern border. “Open borders” have never been his policy or the Democratic Party’s policy or, indeed, the policy of any elected Democrat or Democratic strategist in post-1921 American history.
Everybody understands and agrees that for a country to function it must regulate immigration, and its borders must have a reasonable level of integrity. Everybody. But you’d never know that from watching Fox “News” or listening to rightwing podcasts or hate radio whenever there is a Democrat in the White House.
Republicans are playing a very dangerous game here. By loudly proclaiming “their” lie that Biden has “opened” the southern border and is “welcoming” immigrants and refugees “with open arms.” They are creating the very problem they’re pointing to.
Just google “open border” and “congressman,” “congresswoman,” or “senator” and you’ll get a list of Republican politicians too long to print. These are the quotes that coyotes — human smugglers — print out and distribute to desperate people in Central and South America as advertisements to get people to trade their lives’ savings for transportation to the Rio Grande.
At the top of that list, of course, you’ll find the most contemptible Republican demagogues:
— Ted Cruz wants everybody south of our border to know that the “Biden Open Border Policy [is] A Very Craven Political Decision”;
— Rick Scott wants everybody to know that “Americans Don’t Want [Biden’s] Open Borders”;
— Marco Rubio says there’s “Nothing Compassionate About Biden’s Open Border Policies”;
— Rand Paul is so extreme he tells us Senator Rubio “is the one for an open border”;
— Josh Hawley says “Biden’s Open Border Policy Has Created a Moral Crisis”;
— Tom Cotton “Insists the Border is Wide Open”;
— Ron Johnson wants the world to know that “Our National Security is at Risk Because Democrats have Turned Border Security into a Partisan Issue”;
— Marjorie Taylor Greene “BLASTS Open Border Hypocrites”;
— Mo Brooks opposes “Socialist Democrats’ Open Border Policies for Helping Kill Americans”;
— Lauren Boebert says the “Root Cause” of the open border crisis “is in the White House”;
— Matt Gaetz “revealed a complex and deceitful agenda by Joe Biden’s Democrat administration to evade our Southern Border law enforcement”;
— Gym Jordan says “Biden’s Deliberate Support of Illegal Immigration Could Lead to Impeachment”;
— Kevin McCarthy says the Biden Administration has “Utterly Failed” to secure the “open border”;
— Elise Stefanik proclaims “Biden’s Open Border Policies have been a Complete Disaster.”
— Tom Cole’s website features “Biden’s Open Border America”;
— Bob Goode brags about introducing legislation named the “Close Biden’s Open Border Act”;
— John Rose “Calls Out Biden’s Open Border Policies”;
— Paul Gosar claims Biden is “Destroying America with His Open Border Policies”;
— Roger Williams complains about the “Democrats’ Open Border Problem”;
— Tom Cole wants the world to know that Biden’s “open border policies have given the green light to migrants and bad actors from around the world…”;
— Gus Bilirakis “Denounces Dangerous Open Border Policies on the House Floor”;The list goes on and on, and these messages have spread all across Central and South America, just as Republicans hoped they would, driven by human smugglers following the profit motive.
Based on an intentional GOP lie.
The rest of Thom’s commentary can be found at Daily Take.
I suggested here a week or so ago that this be done.
Unfortunately, if it is done, the MAGA GOP will presumably come up with a different set of demands. But the Dems might as well call their bluff. Illegal immigrant flow across the US southern border is apparently a serious concern, but one has to doubt that much can be done about it. Except maybe building a huge wall all the way across. Requires bi-partisan support for that.
@Fred,
“Except maybe building a huge wall all the way across. Requires bi-partisan support for that.”
It requires deeply silly magical thinking to believe that a wall can stop undocumented immigration. Not only do people who call for a wall at the Southern border not know anything about geography, walls or the politics, they assume that walls build and maintain themselves (or that Mexico will pay for this one).
Even the right-wing CATO Institute saw through this phony solution back in 2017. Here we are, over six years later, and people are still bleating about building a wall.
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/why-wall-wont-work
Any suggestions about what to do next otherwise?
@Fred,
I do think there need to be more asylum judges to screen claims much faster in those cases.
As for economic migrants, require EVerify for every employee. Anyone caught employing undocumented workers who haven’t been processed through EVerify should be fined and serve prison time.
@Joel, excellent suggestions. I’m afraid the Republicans will not agree to either.
I’m afraid the Democrats can’t completely skate on this. Recall the Democratic candidate debate prior to the 2020 election when all (including Biden) raised their hands signifying they would not arrest and deport undocumented persons? Yes, Biden did too raise his hand. The primary Republican demand seems to be changing asylum rules, the legality of which, under international law, is questionable.
Asylum is hugely broken. Huge numbers of people are coached to the nth degree on things to say. People are passing through as many as 4 counties where the could ask for asylum with legitimate claims, but push on to our border. I don’t have a solution really, but I do not think that international law really can control this when so much of it is fictional. I do think that no seeking asylum in the very first place you could ask for it is a big red flag as to the sincerity of the claim. Also, let’s start busing 25% or so straight from our border to the Manitoba line. Our northern neighbors are very compassionate, or so they say.
@Eric377, as you may know, Canada won’t admit them and will deport them if they get in and get caught. On the international law issue, I think the U.S. is party to a treaty requiring allowing application for asylum. Having said that, I agree that many, if not most, such applicants do not qualify and are here for economic reasons. One possible solution would be to speed up the adjudication process but that requires money which the Republicans refuse to appropriate.
Eric:
Where are you from Eric?
People from many lands arrive at our doorstep. Different religion, colors other than pale white, different holidays, other cultures, different clothes, different wants, different food, and looking for a place to survive. And this is you:
Hugely and huge descriptors. Wow! And they are coached too! Do you think the coaching happened in Columbia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico or at the border. Do they have schools along the way? A couple of hours before they get to the authorities there is remedial school to quickly teach them.
Don’t be ridiculous in tossing BS up in the air expecting something to stick. How about I get your address and tell those arriving at the border they need to visit you in Wisconsin?
Because that is exactly what is happening here. Republicans spouting off about an open door policy to get into the United States. And you wish to bus them to Canada. Wisconsin has a lot of room and a lot of prejudice outside of Madison, Milwaukee and a few other places.
You are writing BS and it is incoherent to boot.
Wisconsin, via many years in Ohio and previously about 16 years in a few EU countries. Green Bay Area. Our area is surprisingly dependent on the labor of these migrants. We have major meat Packer (JBS) and other large food processing operations that attract these workers. The east side of Green Bay (city) is heavily Hispanic immigrant. Even pretty small places in Brown county have large Hispanic populations to work in the dairy industry, which is very large in east , central Wisconsin (it is not misleading that Packer fans are called cheeseheads). I believe we need – or at least can use – the labor that these migrants offer, but relying very heavily on asylum claims I think will prove, or already is proving, corrosive to our nation. As poor a reputation as the old “bracero” programs have, better to have straightforward economic migrant system. As far as pathways to citizenship, the formal immigration system (which still works) clearly provides that, so I have the feeling it is of a lot less interest to actual irregular migrants than to immigration activists. I understand you are in Arizona after many years in Michigan.
@Eric377, the “schools” you refer to are largely immigrant grapevines. There are legal groups who will counsel immigrants on whether or not they have grounds and , if so, how to prove them. It’s not just what they say. Usually they have to have corroborating evidence. I don’t pretend to be an immigration law expert but I know some people who are. The real problem is that they get admitted “temporarily”, pending the hearing on their applications which are delayed for years largely due to lack of staffing of the immigration courts. Republicans resist staffing those courts because of expense.
@Eric377, I should add that the problem with the bracero system was that the laborers were tied to a particular employer and could not bargain for better wages or working conditions by changing jobs. Needless to say, they were taken advantage of by the employer “owning” them.
Jack:
Does that give supposedly responsible Republican Senators leeway to announce an open door policy for immigrants? That wasn’t Biden’s intent.
What was said in 2019: “Former Vice President Joe Biden defended the Obama administration’s policy on deportation at the second 2020 Democratic debate in Miami, and criticized the Trump administration’s policy. Biden said that people who have committed major crimes should be deported, but immigrants whose only crime is being in the country illegally “should not be the focus of deportation.”
That statement is not an open door policy which Republicans have lied their way into making it such.
Bill,
It amounts to an open door policy because it tells immigrants if they can get in, they can stay. That prompts them to enter illegally however they can. Many simply overstay tourist visas.
@Eric,
“People are passing through as many as 4 counties where the could ask for asylum with legitimate claims, but push on to our border.”
So you think every country is equivalent in terms of asylum protection?
@Joel, all countries are not equivalent in terms of asylum protection but that doesn’t mean that “the best” country can’t require them to apply elsewhere enroute. I don’t think there’s anything in asylum law allowing the applicant to his/her pick of countries. The lack of equivalence is largely economic and economic desire, even need. is not a legal basis for asylum. The EU’s problems in this regard are as difficult as ours.
@Jack,
“I don’t think there’s anything in asylum law allowing the applicant to his/her pick of countries.”
I don’t think there’s anything in asylum law prohibiting the applicant from picking his/her country to apply to. And there’s a whole lot of daylight between “the best (whatever that means)” and many of the other countries asylum seekers pass through.
“The lack of equivalence is largely economic and economic desire, even need. is not a legal basis for asylum.”
I’m not an immigration attorney, but my daughter is and she tells me that economics is not a basis for an asylum claim. Simply claiming asylum doesn’t guarantee acceptance. There is a lengthy, rigorous and time-consuming process.
I agree with your daughter. My point was that many immigrants want the United States or Germany for economic reasons, not safety. As your daughter says, economic reasons are not a basis for asylum.
@Jack,
As I posted above, when Republicans get serious about economic migrants, they will support a requirement for eVerify and fines + prison time for any employer caught not using eVerify and employing undocumented labor.
I agree that would be effective and useful. However, the Republicans resist this probably to satisfy corporate donors who benefit by taking advantage of undocumented workers. Such workers, as you probably know, are widely used in agriculture, meat packing plants, cleaning crews and other low wage, hard labor jobs.
@Jack,
In addition to the eVerify policy above, I’d add that anyone who purchases goods or services from a vendor who employs undocumented workers would pay a fine. That would incent the public to demand eVerify evidence.
And no, I don’t think any politician would vote for such a law.
Ad nauseum ~ you won’t stop the migrations, they can’t be stopped
Those places are becoming uninhabitable and those who can no longer live there, because it is becoming uninhabitable, are leaving. It’s a matter of life or death, there’s no fight: flee. That can’t be stopped, and like water it will find a way. My humble take is we’d be better off preparing for that than wasting a bunch of finite resources trying to stop it
You won’t stop the migrations, they can’t be stopped. Ask the Neanderthal …
Ten Bears:
I believe the issue here is they are being lied to by Republican political interests who have much to gain by being a catalyst to their arrival at the border expecting to be allowed entry. Nobody is countering their lies and everyone turns to Biden as the cause. If you really want to support your contention, I would look at the birth rate in the US and how much the population has grown.
It isn’t a contention to be supported, it’s facts on the ground, all you have to do is look around. The world is changing, the old paradigms don’t fit. The problem is people are still stuck in the nineteenth century
To reiterate: those places are becoming uninhabitable, the people who can no longer live there are leaving, it won’t be stopped. It is better to embrace and manage that movement than any other option. Period
Ten Bears
You have to think better than such. Not an old paradigm. China’s population is aging out. America’s is too as they are not replacing themselves. Who is going to wipe your butt and get you your gruel?
10 bears,
The migrations can definitely be slowed down. There is a huge industry in Mexico bringing in migrants from all over the world to our border. The US has lots of way to influence Mexico policy, including sanctions.
Here in Arizona the federal government has closed the border crossing at Lukeville. This is the crossing that everyone in Arizona uses to access the resort city of Puerto Penasco, known as Rocky Point. Rocky Point will basically go bankrupt if the crossing is not opened soon. Perhaps the powers that be in Rocky Point will start pressuring AMLO to do something on the southern border.
I agree with others that e verify is critical, but some industries would lose half their work force overnight.
It would be good if they lost half their work forces. They would then pressure their Republican representatives to get serious about immigration reform.
@Jack,
Exactly.
Biden, the Border, and Why a New Wall Is Going Up
NY Times – Oct 6
The Biden administration’s decision to add to the border wall is a confusing one. And the president has insisted that he does not think the new wall will be effective.
(Well, building 20 more miles of The Wall seems barely worth doing.
Building a complete wall across the entire southern border is the way to go fer shur.
And we are going to have to pay for. Maybe we can ask Canada for help.
It won’t be worth it. But maybe it will make (some of) us feel better.)