Republicans spent enormous sums on campaign ads in 2022 depicting migrants in the most demeaning terms imaginable. Then, after winning the House, they rolled out a “border security”-only bill that would treat asylum seekers as the menacing invaders depicted in those ads. The idea was to wall them out and do nothing more.
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Many months later, the House GOP border bill is mired in Republican infighting. Swing district lawmakers have balked at its harsh handling of those seeking asylum. It turns out that basing real-world policy on the lurid fantasy universe depicted in MAGA-pleasing ads produces results so absurd and extreme that Republicans beholden to less MAGA-fied voters can’t stomach it.
Democrats should be capitalizing on this GOP disarray, by doing more to push their own immigration reform agenda. Unfortunately, they are at risk of squandering this moment, and part of the blame falls on President Biden.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and GOP leaders had planned to pass their border bill in January, but that idea got shelved when objections from moderate Republicans caught them off guard. The sticking point is that the GOP bill would functionally end asylum seeking entirely. Republicans are now negotiating to soften this language, because as Politico reports, those objecting fear the bill’s treatment of asylum seekers will “alienate voters back home.”
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All this is a major rebuke to the MAGA worldview. As president, Donald Trump treated migrants as little more than a scourge to be handled with maximal harshness. The most MAGA-faithful GOP candidates in 2022 embraced this notion. Many lost, but Republicans have still vowed that a GOP House must “secure the border” with zero compromises on “amnesty,” meaning no moves to allow more migrants to live and work here.
Yet moderate Republicans are insisting on more humane treatment of migrants. Some of them, such as Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.), have declared the border-only bill a non-starter, calling for allowing more migrants to work here legally. Republicans may well pass something in the end, but they are asking moderates to cast a difficult vote for a bill knowing it will never become law.
Democrats could increase pressure on GOP moderates by getting behind a comprehensive alternative in a more concerted way. In rough outlines, this approach would combine a large increase in money to speed processing of asylum seekers at the border, combined with expedited processes for removing those who don’t qualify. That would potentially give Republicans what they say they want: reducing incentives for migrants to apply for asylum solely to disappear into the interior while awaiting hearings.
This approach would also include new channels for migrants to work legally, which those moderate Republicans — such as Mace — also say they want. And it would include legalization for groups such as the “dreamers” brought here as children, farmworkers and others, another thing some moderate Republicans can countenance.
“Democrats should seize the opportunity to clearly lay out a real plan,” Kerri Talbot of the Immigration Hub told me.
Make sense of the news fast with our daily newsletterMany months later, the House GOP border bill is mired in Republican infighting. Swing district lawmakers have balked at its harsh handling of those seeking asylum. It turns out that basing real-world policy on the lurid fantasy universe depicted in MAGA-pleasing ads produces results so absurd and extreme that Republicans beholden to less MAGA-fied voters can’t stomach it.
Democrats should be capitalizing on this GOP disarray, by doing more to push their own immigration reform agenda. Unfortunately, they are at risk of squandering this moment, and part of the blame falls on President Biden.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and GOP leaders had planned to pass their border bill in January, but that idea got shelved when objections from moderate Republicans caught them off guard. The sticking point is that the GOP bill would functionally end asylum seeking entirely. Republicans are now negotiating to soften this language, because as Politico reports, those objecting fear the bill’s treatment of asylum seekers will “alienate voters back home.”
Follow Greg Sargent's opinionsFollow
All this is a major rebuke to the MAGA worldview. As president, Donald Trump treated migrants as little more than a scourge to be handled with maximal harshness. The most MAGA-faithful GOP candidates in 2022 embraced this notion. Many lost, but Republicans have still vowed that a GOP House must “secure the border” with zero compromises on “amnesty,” meaning no moves to allow more migrants to live and work here.
Yet moderate Republicans are insisting on more humane treatment of migrants. Some of them, such as Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.), have declared the border-only bill a non-starter, calling for allowing more migrants to work here legally. Republicans may well pass something in the end, but they are asking moderates to cast a difficult vote for a bill knowing it will never become law.
Democrats could increase pressure on GOP moderates by getting behind a comprehensive alternative in a more concerted way. In rough outlines, this approach would combine a large increase in money to speed processing of asylum seekers at the border, combined with expedited processes for removing those who don’t qualify. That would potentially give Republicans what they say they want: reducing incentives for migrants to apply for asylum solely to disappear into the interior while awaiting hearings.
This approach would also include new channels for migrants to work legally, which those moderate Republicans — such as Mace — also say they want. And it would include legalization for groups such as the “dreamers” brought here as children, farmworkers and others, another thing some moderate Republicans can countenance.
“Democrats should seize the opportunity to clearly lay out a real plan,” Kerri Talbot of the Immigration Hub told me.
