When President Biden announced his executive action on immigration earlier this month, one of us, Nevada state Sen. Edgar Flores, Esq., was at a courthouse representing a family seeking asylum after being targeted by a cartel in Mexico. A buzz filled the room as other immigration attorneys present wondered how the president’s announcement would impact their cases and why the administration chose to take this step.
For years, both parties have used immigrants as a political football. Democrats and Republicans have passed blame and accusations back and forth with increasing frequency as elections approach. There are many lawyers, immigration judges, and border patrol agents trying to do the right thing, bereft of guidance from the government. They are understandably frustrated that Washington has been unable to reform our deeply broken immigration system.
This executive action is the latest attempt at addressing the politics around our broken immigration system, but it will not offer a real, comprehensive solution.
We can’t let this action set the direction that the Democratic Party moves to on immigration.
Americans want a safe, secure border, and there are common sense ideas that a majority of people can agree on when it comes to immigration reform. But limiting the number of migrants who can claim asylum, based on the number of “encounters” that week rather than the validity of their claims, is arbitrary and will not keep our country safe. Instead, it will likely drive more people to cartels and human smugglers out of desperation, and decrease the number of people coming into the country at legal ports of entry.
We can’t let this action set the direction that the Democratic Party moves to on immigration. Securing our border while also showing compassion to people fleeing violence and persecution must be key values for our party.
It might not make headlines or move the polls, but the most urgent action needed is to increase federal funding to hire more immigration judges. Our immigration system faces a backlog of over two million asylum cases and each one can take up to seven years to complete. Appointing more immigration judges will allow claims to be vetted more thoroughly and processed more quickly, helping people fleeing dangerous situations. It also reduces the incentive for people to make false claims as those will be denied much more quickly. Additional funding for judges and staff was an important part of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill that Republicans ultimately walked away from earlier this year.
Like immigration judges, border patrol agents are overwhelmed too. The paperwork for a single individual alone can take between 60 to 90 minutes, taking away time agents need for patrolling the field. As the representative from Silicon Valley, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., is working to leverage the cutting-edge technology being created in his district to streamline immigration processing. Artificial intelligence can automate straightforward tasks like the first round of document review, allowing agents to focus on the more complex questions in each case. Technology like scanners, rapid tests and machine learning models that can identify suspicious vehicles can also be used to better detect drugs like fentanyl at crossings and prevent them from coming into our country. Online portals and chatbots can help register asylum claims, safely store identity documents, ensure those documents are accessible and provide information to guide asylum-seekers through the entire process.
Donald Trump’s deportation-first approach is both unrealistic and dangerous.
Asylum claimants’ extended wait times are made worse by their vulnerable economic positions: Not only are they largely ineligible for food stamps, but there is a mandatory waiting period of 180 days before they can apply for a work permit. The good news is there is a model for providing stability for migrants and helping industries like agriculture that often struggle to find and retain employees. The bipartisan Farm Workforce Modernization Act establishes a program for agricultural workers to obtain legal status through continued employment and we should expand this for other similar industries.
There are also ways for our government to reduce the number of asylum-seekers through preventative measures. Every year, for example, between 200,000 and 500,000 weapons are transferred across the border between the United States and Mexico. Those weapons go on to drive some of the violence that forces people to flee from their home countries in the first place. Stricter gun regulations in the United States is the first step to stopping the flow of arms.
Of course, the issues in our immigration system go beyond the backlogged asylum process. There are already millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, and Donald Trump’s deportation-first approach is both unrealistic and dangerous. We strongly support the action being considered by the Biden administration to give undocumented people who are married to American citizens an expedited path to citizenship, temporary legal status, and work permits. This would be a huge step forward for the estimated 1.1 million unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens who have been in the country for years, just without any protections.
The same day that the executive action was announced, Sen. Flores also met with a coalition of small business owners. When the conversation turned to immigration, he learned they were supporting Trump because they believed he would drive change on immigration. Sen. Flores told them about the family he was working with and laid out the need for thoughtful solutions that started from a place of respect for people’s experiences and humanity. They agreed with many of the ideas he outlined from increased funding for immigration judges and attorneys, to 21st century technology implementation, to smart policies for migrants to work and pay taxes. Like both of us, they wanted real solutions.
The status quo in our immigration system does no good for immigrants. The years of focus on scoring political points have not yielded any solutions — nor have they addressed voters’ concerns. If we can move past divisive rhetoric, Congress and the president can get something big done on immigration — something worthy of American ideals.