Democrats demagogue the immigration issue:
http://thefederalist.com/2018/06/20/democrats-have-zero-tolerance-for-illegal-immigration-solutions/
“Why won’t the GOP stand up to Donald Trump?!” is the familiar refrain from those who lock-stepped their way through the eight-year hard-left turn of Barack Obama.
“There are so many obstacles to legislation, and when the president can do it with his own pen, it makes no sense,” says Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is a co-sponsor of proposed Democrat legislation to supposedly fix the problem. “Legislation is not the way to go here when it’s so easy for the president to sign it.”
Now,
I realize Democrats have gotten used to the idea of a president ruling with a pen and concocting immigration law unilaterally. It also looks as if Trump will sign an executive order. But Dems know executive action is not “easy.” Democrats know that the administration will likely be stopped by the courts, and that the long-standing Flores consent decree makes it difficult to enforce border laws and keep families together. They know that only legislation can allow both to happen, and they’re more interested in returning to the status quo — which though better than child separation,
continues to ignore the problem.
As Gabriel Malor explained in detail, the proposed legislation cosponsored by every Senate Democrat was so carelessly written that it would prevent “federal law enforcement agencies almost anywhere inside the United States from arresting and detaining criminals who are parents having nothing to do with unlawfully crossing the border and seeking asylum.” So someone should ask leading Democrats if they believe anyone with children should be detained at the border for any reason, at all? Has a leading Democrat explained how we can possibly know if those kids are ok if we have no way of ensuring their parents’ compliance to a court?
There is a moral cost associated with allowing kids to wander over the border. Someone should ask Schumer if he opposes the “child separation” policy or a “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration?
Has any Democrat clarified why their position doesn’t incentivize more migrants to bring children (sometimes their own, but sometimes not) on the dangerous trek over the border rather than to a port of entry? There’s been a spike of families and unaccompanied children at the border over the past five years. This isn’t a new problem.
Someone should ask Democrats what kind of illegal immigrant they believe doesn’t deserve de facto asylum? I’m well aware of the arguments about escaping poverty and violence, and highly sympathetic to them. But I assume those migrants who properly ask for asylum are in the same situation — other than being punished for following rules. I’m a pretty liberal guy on immigration – open to more asylum seekers, bigger immigration, more temporary workers, etc. But I’m not a huge fan of chaos. And I suspect I’m not alone. It’s neither healthy for the country, nor the people who come here seeking a better life, to be thrown into a system that doesn’t work. Nor is it politically rational, as we increasingly see in Europe. Yet, we have Democrats and activists calling for the elimination of ICE.
We have a Democratic Party unwilling to make any compromise on the issue. Sooner or later the situation becomes untenable.