We know the script by heart now. Masses of humanity leaving violent home nations, enduring perilous journeys in lengthy “caravans” only to stack up along the southern border.
What we don’t know — or choose to forget — is this human tragedy is a direct result of a multi-decade effort, principally by Republicans, to choose politics over policy and solve the crisis.
The latest iteration is Southern governors buying bus or plane tickets to send migrants to what these Republicans derisively call “sanctuary” cities — overwhelming led by Democrats.
The politics is obvious.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent several buses to the Washington DC home of Vice President Kamala Harris and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is under criminal investigation for a planeload of migrants he sent from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard — with a refueling stop in his state.
The Biden Administration has been slow to act — principally on a request to extend work authorizations to the migrants. It’s become a flash point for a number of loyal Democrats, including Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, who is dealing with a $45 million monthly tab to care for the families and questions about a 40-year-old state law establishing a right to shelter for families and pregnant women.
Healey said her request for additional state funding is just the start:
“…the issue is really not 250 [million dollars] or whatever I’ve sought for funding,” but rather the fact that the federal government has not addressed national immigration policies or provided money to states like Massachusetts where shelter systems are being squeezed in part because of an influx of newly arriving immigrants.”
Giving Republicans — who failed to address immigration reform under President George W. Bush and made it worse under Donald Trump, — the political weapon they’ve been using to stymie any effort to address the issue.
The last significant reform law passed in 1986 made it illegal to hire or recruit illegal immigrants, while also legalizing some 2.7 million undocumented residents who entered the United States before 1982.
The House and Senate each passed separate bills in 2005 and 2006, and the Senate passed another measure in 2013, only to be stymied by House inaction. Fourteen Republicans voted for that bill, two of the most prominent being senators Marco Rubio of Florida, the son of Cuban immigrants, and Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, of Scots-Irish heritage.
So what happened? The hard right shift of the Republican Party.
Rubio was once viewed as a moderating voice on immigration. Until his presidential ambitions got the best of him. Graham, who has embraced the politics of both John McCain and Trump, can best be viewed — well, you pick the term.
Not only has Congress failed to come to terms on any measure to reform policies, it has turned a blind eye to the issues that prompt millions to leave their homes.
The Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — is beset by economic and environmental problems as well as rampant gang violence. The Biden administration has proposed a $4 billion plan to address the root causes of this migration, worked to stimulate private-sector investment in the region, and extended temporary legal protections for certain migrant groups.
The response from Congress? Crickets.
It’s a safe bet that lawmakers in a snit over the Senate dress code isn’t in the mood to touch a substantive issue that could move votes one way or another.
It’s much easier to blame Biden, one of many recent presidents who tried but failed to produce an equitable and humanitarian solution.
So much for “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”