“Democrats are set to leave immigrants in the lurch again”
That’s the headline of a Vox article published on Monday, November 15, 2021 (here). I say, “click bait.”
Why? That article begins,
“The House may soon vote on Democrats’ $1.75 trillion budget reconciliation bill, with provisions to shield undocumented immigrants living in the US from deportation and relieve long visa backlogs. But like many of the immigration proposals from the last few decades, these … appear unlikely to actually become law. So why is this latest round of immigration reform proposals probably doomed? Two reasons: because of the structure of the Senate and because, on immigration, identity issues have replaced policy.”
(My emphasis.)
C’mon. Both those reasons, the Senate and “identity issues,” are spelled R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N-S. In case you didn’t notice.
Congress hasn’t passed significant immigration legislation since 1986. Vox says the public “has never been more supportive of immigration, with a third saying it should be increased.”
(Note, “a third” isn’t a majority.)
In other words, there isn’t exactly a groundswell of support for more immigration, although as Vox notes, there is majority support for certain specific reforms.
So why is stalled immigration reform the Democrats’ fault? When Republicans are blockading it? Apparently Vox expects them to tack it onto a budget bill, which requires only a simple majority to pass, which the Democrats don’t have in the Senate, or that bill would’ve passed weeks ago.
In case Vox didn’t notice.
Yes, America badly needs immigration reform. The current system is broken. What’s more, our economy needs immigrant workers to expand, because the population of native-born Americans is shrinking, given their propensity for one-child and no-child families.
But with Republicans more interested in stirring people up over things that aren’t taught in our public schools than helping our country grow and prosper, immigration advocates’ options are limited to electing more Democrats. However that may work out in practice, in 2022 and beyond, it does come down to that.