Here’s a preview of exactly what every Democrat will say about the southern border crisis at the presidential primary debates this week: “[I]t should be in the DNA of the American people … to approach this crisis with humanity. There must be a way to house the migrants, accelerate the hearings and protect the border with respect for the dignity and rights of these desperate people.”
That’s actually a direct quote from the New York Times editorial board, but the paper happens to hold the exact same position on immigration as every Democrat. In the editorial published Friday, the New York Times also said that our immigration system needs reform and that any changes to it “must be based on American tolerance and humanity and animated by an American vision of a better future.”
These are all the same empty nouns Democrats trot out in place of any actual policy that would guard the border from the hundreds of thousands of destitute Central Americans currently flooding into the United States. They and their campaign websites give answers that sound exactly the same as the New York Times:
Joe Biden: “We can secure our border and enforce our laws without tossing aside our values, our principles, and our humanity.”
Elizabeth Warren: “[I want] a rules-based system that is fair, humane, and that reflects our values.”
Kamala Harris: “[I’ve] laid out a vision for immigration in America after defeating President Trump [and] championed legislation to reunite families, ensure immigrants have access to legal counsel, and use more humane and cost effective alternatives to detention.
Pete Buttigieg: “We must reclaim our nation’s standing as a human rights leader by implementing common sense immigration reform that will secure our values.”
Julián Castro: “We need to create a secure and humane border.”
Let’s all agree that humanity, dignity, and values are fine and good. But when do we get to the part about cutting off the endless flow of people from Latin America in to Texas? When do we get to the part about ending the abuse of the asylum law? When do we get to the part where we recognize that the U.S. can’t function as a welfare net for all of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador?
We never get to that part. Democrats instead do like the New York Times editorial board and simply reject every attempt by the Trump administration to restore some sense of order and sanity to the border.
The New York Times said that each and every new policy and rule put out by the White House that aims to stop the chaos “should be a source of shame for all Americans.”
Those sources of “shame,” according to the New York Times, include Trump’s “wall” (which border agents overwhelmingly deem necessary); the order for Central American asylum seekers to first file their claims in a country they pass through on the way to Texas; and the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants.
The paper said that each one of those “perverts American values and traditions.” Okay, so, again, what exactly is the country supposed to do in order to, in the New York Times’ own words, “protect the border with respect for the dignity and rights of these desperate people?”
The editorial offered not even one proposal to do that. But that’s the point. Whenever open-border proponents, like the entire 2020 Democratic field, talk immigration, they name-check “values,” “humanity,” “principles,” and any other worn-out bromide, but they have no proposal outside of just letting everyone in.
No matter what any of the candidates say on the debate stage this week, that is their position.
