Migrants Used as Pawns. A New Political Low!

Earlier this month Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had 48 migrants taken from a shelter in San Antonio, Texas and flown to the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.  Was this a shrewd political move or a despicable act which preyed upon the vulnerabilities of desperate migrants? Probably both.

The actions of DeSantis were clearly immoral and probably criminal. There are currently several investigations and lawsuits into the actions of DeSantis which will take months, if not years, to unravel. But in the meantime, the Florida Governor has succeeded in grabbing national headlines, delighting the Republican base, and causing outrage among Democrats.

​In addition to increasing his own profile, DeSantis has spotlighted how the problems at the southern border are a huge vulnerability for the Biden Administration and an energizing issue for most Republicans. For the rest of us, this episode has shined a light on important issues that Congress has failed to adequately address. Immigration policies in this country are broken, causing security issues at the border, untold misery on migrants attempting to seek asylum, and chaos for our border states. Only Congress can fix this mess.

Scope of the Current Problem: DeSantis’ political stunt succeeded in focusing our attention on the massive surge of migrants who have been apprehended crossing the U.S. southern border this year. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 2.3 million migrants have been arrested during the 2022 fiscal year, which ends on September 30. This is the most arrests in our history. The surge in migration is being fueled by people fleeing the violence and poverty in Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.
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Over half of the migrants arrested were immediately sent back to Mexico or their country of origin. But many of those who remain apply for asylum or another humanitarian status. These people, like the Venezuelans sent to Martha’s Vineyard by DeSantis, can stay in this country pending a court hearing. It can often take several years for asylum cases to be resolved. In the meantime, the migrants are free to stay and travel within the United States.

Dealing with the influx of migrants flowing through legal, as well as illegal, points along the border, has overwhelmed border communities. Texas has taken the brunt of it, but California, Arizona and New Mexico have also been impacted. 

Why Doesn’t the Government Act?  Immigration and border issues are multifaceted and very tough to resolve politically. The last time a piece of comprehensive immigration legislation was signed into law was during the Reagan Administration in 1986.
 
Rather than coming together to solve the problem, the major parties use the issue as a political weapon against the other side. As a result, most of the policies currently in place have come from judicial decrees or executive orders from recent presidents. This is a patchwork approach, and not very effective.

For more information on the immigration debate and a good review of executive actions taken by the past few administrations, follow this link to the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Has President Biden Made the Problem Worse? In a word, probably. Joe Biden campaigned on taking a much more humane approach to the southern border than Donald Trump did. True to his word, the President took dozens of actions during his first few months in office to overturn many of Trump’s immigration policies. These included ending travel bans from many Muslim countries, halting construction of the border wall, lifting the suspension of green card processing, increasing the number of visas issued to immigrants, and speeding the reunification of migrant families. Some of Biden’s efforts to overturn Trump’s policies have been blocked by judges, and others are still undergoing judicial review.   
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All of these actions have signaled to migrants that the United States is a kinder and gentler place now that Trump is out of office. It's hard to argue that President Biden’s immigration policies didn't encourage more immigration to the United States. 

So, What is to Be Done? The surge of migrants at the southern border requires a surge of federal resources to address the crisis. The Customs and Border Protection Agency needs to be beefed up as quickly as possible, and the border states need federal dollars and personnel to deal with the influx of migrants into their states. This is a national issue, and the border states need our support to humanely deal with the suffering along the border.

The federal government needs to provide the financial resources required for case officers and immigration courts to more efficiently handle the huge backlog of applicants. If the United States can find billions of dollars to help Ukraine, and rightly so, it can find the billions needed to address some of the most urgent immigration and border issues.   
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In the short-term, President Biden will continue to manage border and immigration efforts through the executive branch. But this a patchwork approach, and any policies put into place can easily be reversed by the next administration. The real solution is for Congress to negotiate a comprehensive package of reforms which address border security, the demand for high and low-skilled workers, the legal status of the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the country, and the enforcement of immigration laws. 

Immigration law is complex, and it was not my intention to do a thorough examination of it here. There are many good references for those who are interested in taking a deeper dive into this topic. This site provides a good summary of the immigration laws in our country.
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The actions of Florida Governor DeSantis were reprehensible and some day he may pay a steep price for them. But in the meantime, his political star has risen. The one silver lining to this episode is that it has shined a light on an issue that deserves more of our attention. Border security and effectively managing immigration is one of the most important duties of the federal government, and it has failed. This should not be a political issue, but an American issue.   

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Thanks,
Armchair American