(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



If the Democrats are to have a chance, Biden has to start controlling the border better [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-09-21

You may not like hearing it, but if the President doesn’t start appearing “tough” on border control, there will be no Joe Biden in the White House in Jan. 2025, nor will the Democrats have any chance at retaining the Senate, let alone winning the House back, either.

Yes, we have a border crisis, with 8,000 migrant apprehensions every day, probably just a fraction of the number of migrants successfully evading border security. When even Democratic governors and mayors have spent the better part of the past couple of years pleading with the White House for help dealing with the crush of migrants, and its only been yesterday that some sort of WH accommodation to Democratic demands has finally been offered, then it’s a full-blown party crisis.

But granting temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands Venezuelan migrants is not really going to do much. Ok, so it will allow Venezuelan migrants to be eligible for work: what kind of employment could all but a few of them obtain that will pay the rent? For almost anywhere in the nation? There’s a housing shortage in almost every state, which is pushing up housing rental prices everywhere. We have American teachers who can’t afford to live anywhere near their own school districts, and who have to work multiple jobs to pay the rent, but somehow hundreds of thousands of migrants will be able to afford housing working at McDonalds? And then, of course, their presence simply makes the housing shortage even worse.

I’ve read somewhere that the Biden administration has declined to accede to governor and mayors’ requests for federal funding that would provide for migrant housing, meals, etc. The reasoning is that providing federal funding would merely incentivize further migrant incursions, so best not to do that.

I agree that providing federal funds would be the worst thing to do, but the best reason not to do it is simple politics: it would not be popular among both the Democratic base and undecided voters (no matter what you might think), and it would just do even more to drive GOP voters to the polls to vote for Trump and his stooges. The White House would have to be naive in the extreme to think migrants consider the prospect of not getting free housing and meals a reason not to try crossing the border. These are desperate people escaping from impossible situations back home — they will cross the border even if they know they’ll have to live on the street.

Unfortunately, the President may very well have to some things previously considered unpalatable, including, yes, stationing US troops to assist National Guard units now being deployed to patrol the border. But isn’t sending US troops to the border something that Trump is now bloviating about? Yes, but now is the time to get ahead of Trump on this. There is no political downside in doing so; there are far more Democratic centrist voters who are unhappy with the seemingly endless surge of migrants in their cities than progressives who believe it’s our responsibility to accept as many migrants as possible, no matter the cost and the consequences.

The other thing Biden can do is host an emergency summit with Mexico, and Central and South American leaders to discuss ways to achieve political and economic stability in their respective nations, as well as work out deals to arrange border security, and to stem the migrant smuggling industry.

Basically, an all-out White House campaign to combat the migrant crisis needs to commence — quickly.

My beef with Trump and immigration “policy” was his neo-Nazi handling of it, with near-concentration camps and separating children from their families. Plus the science-fiction scam of “the wall”. But that doesn’t mean the crush of hundreds of thousands of migrant incursions needs to happen, either. This is not Ellis Island America, anymore.

Get tough in public now, or see Trump and the other GOP thugs in power real soon.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/21/2194629/-If-the-Democrats-are-to-have-a-chance-Biden-has-to-start-controlling-the-border-better

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/