Liberal New York Times columnist David Leonhardt is utterly baffled over the lack of coherent immigration policy coming from Democrats.
Here is a hint for him: Democrats are not being honest when they say they are “for border security.” The mainstream of the party believes in open borders to anyone who can make it. Not only have they explicitly said it, but they’ve also explicitly acted on it.
Leonhardt wrote in a column Wednesday that it remains unclear “exactly what the Democrat Party’s new position on immigration is.” He said there were questions he wanted answered by Democrats, like, “What kind of border security do you believe in?”; “Do you believe that immigrants who enter this country illegally should be allowed to stay?”; and “What do you believe should happen to future levels of legal immigration?”
It’s true that Democrats are almost never confronted with any serious questions about immigration outside of, “What do you think about Trump’s racist rhetoric?” But if you watch them talk long enough, their position usually reveals itself quite clearly.
After the Trump administration rolled out a new policy for the legal port of entry in San Diego, that any migrant seeking asylum from Mexico must wait south of the border for their court hearing, then-outgoing-Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said everyone claiming asylum should be allowed in. “Why should they have to wait on the other side of the border when they could be victimized again?” he said in December on CNN.
Gutierrez certainly knows the problem with allowing all asylum seekers in, very few of whom have a legitimate asylum claim. After being turned lose into the U.S., a sizable portion of them don’t bother showing up for their hearing. CNN reported just Wednesday on a court hearing for 16 migrants who have been waiting in Mexico. Four of them didn’t show up for it. The number of no-shows gets close to 40 percent, meaning thousands of illegal immigrants escape into U.S. neighborhoods every year with no one knowing who they are or what they’re going to do here.
Gutierrez doesn’t care, and his is the Democrat position on immigration.
A few days later and again on CNN, incoming freshman Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, D-N.M, said the first responsibility border patrol agents have is not to keep unknown people from crossing into the country, but to function as nurses and babysitters for them.
“So, we have to prioritize, of course, medical equipment, as well as personnel, appropriate facilities for these families that are being detained,” she said, “because that’s important to save childrens’ lives, to make sure that detainees are safe and healthy.”
Beto O’Rourke is considered a viable contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Not only is he opposed to building more border barrier, but he wants to tear down the existing structures.
California Sen. Kamala Harris, another 2020 candidate, sees similarities between the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents operate and the Ku Klux Klan.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., the new unofficial leader of the House Democratic caucus, says that ICE should be abolished altogether.
I hope this answers some of David Leonhardt’s urgent questions. Democrats aren’t completely evasive on the subject of immigration. They’re openly in support of open borders, if you just let them talk long enough.
