Community members of Eagle Pass gather outside of Shelby Park to protest its closing, the militarization of their community, the “take Back Our Border” convoy and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and fellow governors holding a press conference along the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border to discuss border security plans on Feb. 4.
National Guardsmen stand for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other governors as they hold a press conference along the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border to discuss Operation Lone Star and border concerns on Feb. 4 in Eagle Pass.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is interviewed after holding a press conference with fellow governors along the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border to discuss Operation Lone Star and border concerns on Feb. 4 in Eagle Pass.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at a press conference at the U.S.-Mexico border, addressing Operation Lone Star and border concerns on Feb. 4 in Eagle Pass.
National Guardsmen stand behind Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other governors as they hold a press conference to discuss Operation Lone Star and border concerns on Feb. 4 in Eagle Pass.
No immigration bill is more likely to pass a divided Congress than the one produced by the Senate this week. The question is whether lawmakers will approve it this year, next year or the year after.
The $118 billion national security package, with $20 billion for immigration, enrages partisans. But democracy requires compromise, and the sooner Congress does something, the less people will suffer. The sooner this bill becomes law, the faster the economy will grow.
Conservatives should embrace the end of what they call “catch and release,” a policy that draws many migrants to U.S. border posts. The bill would correctly streamline the asylum and deportation processes and encourage migrants to use official procedures.
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“The bill provides funding to build the wall, increase technology at the border, and add more detention beds, more agents, and more deportation flights,” U.S. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, said in a statement. “It dramatically changes our ambiguous asylum laws by conducting fast screenings at a higher standard of evidence, limited appeals, and fast deportation.”
The new asylum procedure would require officers to determine within 90 days whether a migrant has a “credible fear” of persecution. Migrants would need to provide evidence and show they would be unsafe anywhere in their home country.
Courts routinely reject most asylum claims. But economic migrants know what to say when they arrive to get a later court date, and they know their work permit is good until a judge deports them, often years later.
Under the new system, border protection would detain individuals during the initial 90-day screening and closely monitor families with children. If an asylum officer determines there is no credible fear, deportation would be swift. Those who pass the first screening will face a final hearing within 90 days.
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Republicans like to say President Joe Biden could close the border tomorrow if he wished. But presidents can only act within the congressional authority granted, and federal judges have issued conflicting opinions.
The immigration bill would require the Department of Homeland Security to turn away migrants when numbers exceed a daily average of 5,000 a day for a week. That’s half of what agents have seen in recent months.
Asylum officers would continue processing 1,400 claims a day through the appointment system. We should discourage people from spending their life savings to rush the border in a long-shot bid to gain asylum when alternatives are available.
The bill would protect asylum seekers who use official channels to escape places where a credible fear is unmistakable, such as Venezuela, Cuba, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Haiti. Yet many immigrant rights groups call the bill draconian.
“The Senate has demonstrated that it would prefer to cater to hateful and anti-immigrant rhetoric about the border rather than consider real legal and policy solutions,” Sameera Hafiz, policy director of Immigrant Legal Resource Center, wrote.
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Most importantly, the bill would expand visas and permanent residency for workers our economy desperately needs.
Conservatives say they support legal immigration and only oppose undocumented workers who skip the line. The problem is that Congress has failed to expand legal immigration enough to meet the U.S. employers’ needs.
The U.S. unemployment rate is 3.7%, with 9 million open positions in the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week. We have more jobs than we have unemployed people.
Thousands of employers hire undocumented workers because they cannot find able and willing Americans. The bill would add 50,000 green cards annually for the next five years.
Immigration is critical to the U.S. economy. Without immigrants, the U.S. population would be shrinking and aging quickly. Migrants have enabled the U.S. economy to recover far more strongly than any other wealthy country since the pandemic.
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The U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.5% in 2023, with the runner-up, Japan, only hitting 1.9%. France, Italy and the United Kingdom all grew less than 1%, while Germany was in a recession, the International Monetary Fund reported.
Election-year politics, though, will delay congressional approval of the bipartisan deal. Former President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott want to perpetuate the border crisis to defeat Biden in November. Abbott is spending $6 billion of Texas taxpayer money a year to keep airing the 24/7 campaign commercial he’s started in Eagle Pass.
No party will win overwhelmingly in November, and this bill is a good compromise. I will give the Border Patrol union the last word: “While not perfect, the Border Patrol Act of 2024 is a step in the right direction and is far better than the current status quo.”
Award-winning opinion writer Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter at houstonhchronicle.com/tomlinsonnewsletter or expressnews.com/tomlinsonnewsletter.
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