A Congressional Temper Tantrum over Immigration

By Robert Weiner and Dante Masucci

In one of Monty Python's famous comedy sketches, a man tries to return a recently purchased parrot to the pet store, complaining that the bird died shortly after he bought it. The store owner refuses to accept that the parrot is dead, no matter how clearly devoid of life it is, even when the man shakes it, yells in its ear, and bangs it against the table. The sketch was intended to be lighthearted comedy, but it appears that some of today's GOP leaders took it as a how-to manual for coping with a defeat on immigration. When their narrative is contradicted by facts, they simply double down on the narrative.

The Biden administration has made a point of cooperating with Mexico to stem illegal immigration as an alternative to restrictive anti-immigration policies, and, as the New York Times put it : "Number of Migrants at the Border Plunges as Mexico Helps U.S. to Stem Flow". Despite this obvious success, Republican politicians still attempted to attack the administration on immigration. When President Biden announced the rollback of the Trump administration's activation of Title 42, Republican leaders responded with anger and concern about how this would exacerbate already existing issues at the southern border. Title 42, part of the Public Health Service Act of 1944, allowed for tightening border controls if there is a risk of a communicable disease spreading from another country to the United States. It was invoked by the Trump administration when the Covid-19 pandemic began. Republicans praised this invocation of the act and even began discussing a permanent codification of Title 42 controls after the end of the pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, those same Republicans were infuriated by Biden's decision to end Title 42 and revert back to normal immigration restrictions. In a letter to Biden, Republican senators argued that the end of Title 42 would exacerbate the "national security and humanitarian disaster on our southern border." Republicans in the House passed an anti-immigration bill as a way to counter the lifting of the Title 42 restrictions. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been a vocal critic of Biden, took a leading role in the attacks on him over the legal rollback, saying that he "deliberately compromised our national security" by discontinuing the restrictive policy. GOP representatives have introduced articles of impeachment for both Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing them of a dereliction of duty and "endangering the security of the United States." The House voted 219 to 208 on June 22nd to keep the Biden impeachment resolution active by referring it to the Homeland and Judiciary committees.

This would be biting criticism, if their outrage and predictions of disaster had matched up with the post-Title 42 reality. Despite the Senate Republicans' fearmongering in their letter to Biden that the DHS would probably encounter 13,000 illegal immigrants per day, that did not happen. Since May 12th, when the policy was deactivated, the DHS has reported only around 3,700 unscheduled encounters per day. This is a massive drop from April, when about 7,050 unscheduled encounters occurred per day. In addition, the DHS reported that illegal entries have dropped by around 70% since Title 42 was ended. And according to a recent CNN report where migrants were interviewed, migrants feel that "After TItle 42 expired, it's much more difficult to try to cross." This is all in spite of the fact that the amount of migrants moving through Central and South America has almost quadrupled since last year, according to the Panamanian government as reported by the New York Times.

Before the end of Title 42, Biden, Vice President Harris and Secretary Mayorkas went into overdrive in enacting new immigration policy to avoid the dreaded surge of migrants. Their success came mainly from cooperating with other countries and organizations in the Western Hemisphere who have mutual interests with Washington when it comes to stabilizing immigration in North and Central America. In accordance with the Los Angeles Declaration, an agreement that the Biden administration reached with Western Hemisphere countries for multilateral cooperation on migration, several countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Belize, and Costa Rica, have all begun creating better legal pathways for migrants to temporarily settle in those countries to reduce surges of migration that would otherwise overwhelm government services and agencies. Biden also prepared for the end of Title 42 by giving roughly $23 million in assistance to various Central American countries and Mexico to help them give temporary shelter and accommodations for migrants to stabilize migration patterns. He also expanded support to various NGOs and nonprofits, who play a vital role in aiding and sheltering migrants when governments fall short.

Biden's collaboration with Mexico on immigration is part of a larger pattern of successful cooperation with America's southern neighbor during his administration. Reminiscent of FDR's Good Neighbor policy, Biden has avoided using the threats and insults that were commonplace under the previous administration, instead opting for a strategy based on joint action on common issues, coupled with respect for Mexico as a neighbor and partner instead of a problem to be dealt with. This strategy has yielded results, with Biden recently convincing Mexico to invest over $1.5 billion in increasing border security over the next two years. The Biden administration's support for electric vehicles has also helped renew the relationship between Mexico and America, with Mexico welcoming the opportunity to open new car manufacturing plants to continue their rapid economic growth. Not only is engagement with Mexico having short-term benefits, but it's likely to pay even greater dividends in the future. Goldman Sachs has predicted that Mexico will be the fifth biggest economy in the world by 2050, something that would enrich the United States as well, given that we are their biggest trade partner by far and they are our second biggest trade partner (only slightly behind Canada).

Given how successful Biden's policies on Mexico and immigration have been, it's clear that the GOP efforts to impeach him and Mayorkas over the state of the southern border is pure political showmanship, meant to act as red meat for hardcore conservative voters. Biden's success with migration also shows America that it's possible to have a successful immigration system without the harsh anti-immigration policies that Republicans campaign on. Biden outmaneuvered them and proved that their methods of building walls and separating families are unnecessary, so the only response they have left is to throw a fit. But the stubborn thing about facts is that the parrot is still dead, no matter how hard the GOP tries to insist that it is somehow alive.

Robert Weiner is a former Clinton and Bush White House spokesman who also served as senior staffer for the House Government Operations and Judiciary committees, Congressmen John Conyers, Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, Ed Koch, Sen. Ted Kennedy and 4-star Gen. Barry McCaffrey. Dante Masucci is Policy Analyst at Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change.