Recently, Biden ended border restrictions that allowed the US to expel illegal immigrants without a hearing. The restriction was created under Trump, using the pandemic as a way of justifying the bill. Now that the effects of the pandemic have subsided, the CDC with the support of the Biden administration, have deemed Title 42 aka the restrictions, as “no longer necessary” for public health. However, this move hasn’t been without controversy. Republicans were firm in their opposition to the bill, demanding changes and introducing a bill to preserve the policy. The Biden administration will not be able to pass a 10 billion COVID aid bill because of the backlash against Title 42.
A significant part of the opposition to Title 42 were that 5 moderate Democrat Senators (Kyrsten Sinema, Mark Kelly, Joe Manchin, Raphael Warnock, and Maggie Hassan) sided with the Republicans against the removal of the restrictions. Two House Democrats (Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez) also sided with the Republicans. This demonstrates a divide within the Democratic party as senators and representatives attempt to distance themselves from the Biden administration in order to gain more support as the midterms approach. What is interesting is that most of these senators and representatives come from hotly contested areas like Arizona or Georgia. It’s also interesting to note how they are sacrificing party loyalty to protect the interests of their constituents.
I like how they are considering their constituents over the party since they are representing them in government. Whether I agree with the removal of the bill is a different matter. In my opinion, the White House has definitely miscalculated with the timing of the removal of Title 42 by placing it right before the midterm elections. They should’ve done it right away when there was more time till the midterms. As a result, they will pay the price politically. Republicans are already emphasizing this mistake, making sure to constantly push for elongated restrictions. They feel that they can appeal to the moderate independent voters by getting rid of illegal immigrants that have been linked to the fentanyl crisis around the country. This doesn’t bode well for the Democrats at all. The policy itself is an interesting one because it has pros and cons on both sides. On one side, you don’t want a constant stream of people entering the country, bringing illegal substances along with other problems. On the other side, it is definitely inhumane and also against the Bill of Rights to just force people back without a hearing or something that can allow them to defend themselves. This problem won’t go away soon.
Questions:
Do you think the Democrats still have a chance with the midterm elections? Will this move hurt them significantly?
If you were Biden, would you have removed Title 42? What would you have done instead?
Do you believe it is better to serve your party or your constituents?
Sources:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23016907/democrat-biden-border-title-42-midterms
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/05/politics/title-42-gop-election-strategy/index.html
3 comments:
I think this situation really illustrates the concept we talked about during gov where America's electoral system was dubbed "the never ending campaign." It puts elected officials in a difficult position, because they may want to do what's right or really believe in a certain proposal, but it might not align with the timing of elections. Obviously, delaying justice to up one's chances of re-election is not the best thing, but they also have to consider what things would look like if the opposition is power. Maybe in this case, it might be better to wait to pass something like this until after midterms, given the pushback that we've seen. Both options impact people, and I don't know which would be the right choice. As for the actual measure itself, I definitely don't think we should be deporting people without a hearing. Even though they aren't citizens, they are still human beings who should be afforded that right.
I am not fully convinced this will be a negative move for them in the midterm elections. While the real answer would require extensive polling data about the constituents of the Democrats in Congress, I would think that people who are sympathetic to illegal immigrants would support the removal of this bill and the Democrats would gain in popularity. On the other hand, Republicans have criticized this bill and it will help them in the midterm elections among their constituency. The talking points that Republicans can use of the Fentanyl crisis can work, but there are equal reasons on the other side to support of removal of the bill, such as immigrant communities near the border who might support increased immigrant from their home country. Like Zara said in the end of her comment, there are good ideological reasons to oppose Title 42 because of the fact that they are deported without hearings and that COVID is no longer a relevant reason, but there are many other factors that go along with how people vote for a candidate who has done so many other things than just Title 42, and I am not convinced people will vote based on this reason; they will vote based on more easy to understand factors like their impression of how much the candidate supports immigrants or their fear of fentanyl.
It is not solely a gain for Republicans, otherwise Biden would not be doing this in the first place. But, it is hard to tell if it will be able to swing any moderate voters to either side or even from one side to another or just serve to make voters who are already voting for the candidates be more confident in their decisions and have little effect in changing the balance of votes.
It makes sense for some Democrats to take the calculation and decide to act against the removal of this Act because their constituency supports it. I think that they should do this to maintain their position in office, so that they can continue to pass legislation and help the Democratic party's goals overall. We touched upon this idea in class: politicians cannot be only driven by their ideals because sometimes they have to act pragmatically to maintain their post in office to then continue to pass the legislation they truly care about. There are some sacrifices they make for the bigger picture.
I support the removal of Title 42, as it exploited the COVID crisis in order to enact Trump’s xenophobic anti-immigration agenda. According to Columbia University, leading public health experts such as Fauci attest that “community transmission within the US, and not introduction of the virus from Mexico, is driving the spread of COVID-19.” Title 42 is incredibly inhumane and has Human Rights First has reported almost 10,000 cases of people unable to seek asylum being “kidnapped, tortured, raped and violently attacked” in Mexico. I am deeply disappointed that Biden has not acted sooner to remove Title 42 and end the human rights abuses that it has caused. It’s wrong to use people’s lives as pawns in the game of politics—immigrants should not be put at risk so that members of Congress can gain support among constituents. Although midterms are definitely a concern, the Democratic Party should hold true to its values of justice and equality and protect immigrants’ rights.
Immigrants are invaluable to America, despite the myths that immigrants from the Mexican border bring COVID, drugs, and other negatives to America. The fact is, the US has much higher rates of COVID cases than Mexico and Central America, and the numbers of cases are increasing much faster in the US. Furthermore, the US Sentencing Commission found that US citizens received 77% of federal drug trafficking convictions in 2018. Immigrants do not cause crime—this is proven by the fact that as America’s immigrant population has increased throughout history, violent crime has decreased. In a study of violent, property, drug, and traffic arrest rates of native-born citizens, legal immigrants, and undocumented immigrants in Texas from 2012-2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that “undocumented immigrants have the lowest felony arrest rates across all four crime types.” Stereotyping immigrants as criminals is incredibly harmful as well as untrue and contributes to unjust measures such as Title 42.
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/research/program-forced-migration-and-health/epidemiologists-and-public-health-experts-reiterate-urgent-call-end-title-42
https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/five-things-to-know-about-the-title-42-immigrant-expulsion-policy
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014704117
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