After years of the Republican Party dominating the immigration conversation, President Joe Biden urged Congress to help secure the nation’s southern border with Mexico.
“If you won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border,” he said last week during his State of the Union address, adding that he also wants “a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.”
“America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts,” he said.
Biden’s brief remarks on border security are part of the shifting attitudes Democrats have about immigration and border security. Most Democrats have pushed for immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for otherwise law-abiding residents in the country without authorization, as well as guest worker programs and legal status for children, known as Dreamers, who were brought to the country by parents or guardians.
In contrast, Republicans have pounded the need to “secure the border” to stop the flow of not only authorized immigrants, but the drug trade and human trafficking, an issue of importance to both parties.
Democrats, particularly in border states like Texas, realize that they are not forceful enough on border security, an issue that resonates with voters. For many election cycles, Republicans have used the issue as a contrast with Democrats, even as most elected leaders agree the border should be secure.
“It’s an open sore that the Republicans have picked at all day long,” said Matt Angle, founder and director of the Democratic research group called the Lone Star Project.
Angle said Democrats need to change their approach on the issue not only because voters care about it, but also to remove it as a GOP talking point.
“It’s the crisis they crave,” he said of Republicans. “They have poured money and resources into border security and have not taken responsibility for the failure.”
Even progressive Democrats acknowledge that they have to change their tone on immigration issues.
“If Democrats don’t figure out how to talk about the border, they can light all of their money on fire because that’s what they’ll be doing anyway,” said Ed Espinoza, former executive director of the liberal group called Progress Texas “Republicans understand there’s a difference between border security and immigration. Democrats talk about the two issues as if they are the same, and they are not the same, at least they’re not in the minds of voters.”
Espinoza said Democrats could rally voters to their side by acknowledging the need for border security. One goal Democrats should push, he said, is beefing up the infrastructure on the border that is needed to handle the huge backlog of asylum cases.
“We have no humanitarian infrastructure at the border,” he said. “Without humanitarian infrastructure, we will never be able to process asylum cases or anything related to that.”
Republicans are full steam ahead on border security.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made border security a centerpiece of his public policy proposals. The three-term governor has pushed the state to spend over $4 billion for his border security plan called Operation Lonestar, which has resulted in the deployment of thousands of soldiers and state police and construction of new barriers along the border.
Last month Abbott tapped former border patrol agent Mike Banks to oversee the plan with the goal of making Texas the “least desirable place” for migrant crossings.
The plan has been criticized by some as ineffective, but it remains popular with Texas voters. Border security policy, though a staple of Abbott’s administration, is primarily the job of the federal government.
Last year, when he was up for reelection campaign against former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Abbott garnered heavy publicity by transporting migrants to Washington, New York, Chicago and later Philadelphia as border crossings skyrocketed. Migrants were dropped off at the residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, who was picked by Biden to handle border policy.
Some Democrats called Abbott’s move a stunt, but he was easily reelected. The city of El Paso, a Democratic Party stronghold, also sent migrants to other cities, which validated Abbott’s approach. El Paso officials stopped busing migrants to New York and Chicago after Biden made policy changes to mitigate the flow of migrants from Venezuela.
That’s why it’s critical for Biden to help Democrats rebrand themselves as pro-border security, while still pushing for the immigration reforms that will fix the entire system.
“Everyone needs to take a serious look at what needs to be done to deal with it,” Angle said.
Republicans say they notice the changes in the approach by their rivals, but say it’s too late to make political gains.
“They are late to the table,” said state Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano.
