Harris says Congress needs to act on immigration reform as Title 42 ends
By: Deepa Shivaram, Asma Khalid, Lisa Weiner, Keren Carrion (NPR. org)
The Biden administration is relying on double speak to avoid addressing issues and shift blame elsewhere. Congress is not ending the Title 42 restrictions; that's all on the Biden administration. And a pathway to citizenship won't address the number of encounters at the southern border. A pathway to citizenship will only be applicable after migrants have entered the country. The crisis is being caused by how people are entering the country before there is any need for a pathway to citizenship.
Note that the Biden administration's response to the surge in border crossings is to deploy resources to more efficiently process asylum requests. That's not going to ease the emergencies declared by cities. Increasing the efficiency of the administrative process won't lessen the need for shelters and resources to support the influx. The problem is not the administrative paper process. And a pathway to citizenship won't build more shelters or provide resources to support the growing number of people in the desired pipeline for citizenship.
Harris is employing old, tired partisan talking points intended to divert attention away from the Biden administrations' mismanagement and lack of planning. Blowing partisan smoke may win elections (by duping the easily distracted) but does absolutely nothing to deal with the real crisis.
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Harris says Congress needs to lead on immigration after Title 42 restrictions end
Vice President Harris told NPR in an interview Monday that the administration plans to add more resources to the southern border when Title 42 migration restrictions end.
Vice President Harris says the Biden administration is prepared to do what it can to manage an expected surge of people trying to seek asylum at the southern U.S. border when pandemic border restrictions end, but said it's up to Congress to put in place broader reforms to deal with the issue.
Title 42, the Trump-era public health order that restricted migrants from crossing the southern border, had been set to expire on Wednesday, until the Supreme Court issued a temporary halt on the expiration late on Monday.
Republican attorneys general from 19 states have argued that lifting the restrictions would likely cause a surge of illegal immigration at the southern border. There has already been an increase of people attempting to migrate to the U.S. in recent weeks.
"I think that there is so much that needs to happen to address the issue," Harris said in an interview with NPR, hours before the Supreme Court issued its stay.
"And sadly, what we have seen in particular, I am sad to say, from Republicans in Congress is an unwillingness to engage in any meaningful reform that could actually fix a lot of what we are witnessing," Harris said.
Harris, who has the role of addressing the root causes of migration at the southern border, said the White House plans to boost technology to help process asylum cases more efficiently, and add more agents at the southern border. But she emphasized that Congress needs to lead on the larger issues.
"Reform of our immigration system can only happen through Congress in terms of the passage of an immigration bill that allows for a legal pathway to citizenship and a legal presence in the country," she said.
Harris also criticized some Republicans for using migrants to try to score political points. In recent months, Republican governors including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have bused thousands of migrants in their states to more liberal-leaning parts of the country, including Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, New York and to Washington, D.C., right outside the vice president's residence.
Harris also says Congress should act on protecting abortion rights
Democrats' success in the Georgia runoff election that took place earlier this month meant the party gained a bit of a cushion in passing their agenda through the Senate. That win also frees up Harris, who has served as a tie-breaking vote in the upper chamber 26 times since becoming vice president. She said she expects that means she will be able to travel more next year, now that she's not on call for Senate votes.
In 2022, she invested significant time meeting with advocates and state legislators from around the country to talk about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade. But on that issue, Democrats still don't have enough votes in the Senate to make good on President Biden's pledge to codify abortion rights.
Harris said she sees the issue as a "movement" where the focus has to be on supporting state and local leaders who are trying to protect reproductive rights — and on pushing Congress to act.
"The work cannot be anything other than a matter of urgency to protect and fight for these rights, for all people to put pressure on the United States Congress to do what is the right thing to do and put the protections of Roe v Wade into law to codify it," she said.
With social media companies like Twitter, Harris' chief concern is disinformation
Since Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has taken charge of Twitter, the website's rules and operations have been up-ended. Over the weekend, Musk suspended the accounts of several journalists who have reported about his ownership of the company. The accounts were mostly all reinstated after a few days.
Asked whether she saw a point where she would stop using the platform, Harris did not directly comment. But she said she is concerned about the rapid spread of disinformation on social media platforms, something she investigated when she was on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
"I fully expect and would require that leaders in that sector cooperate and work with us who are concerned about national security and concerned about upholding and protecting our democracy to do everything in their power to ensure that there is not a manipulation that is allowed or overlooked," Harris said.
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The Biden administration has created crisis after crisis through lack of leadership, lack of planning, and mismanagement. The Biden administration seems to have a talent for dong the wrong thing at the wrong time. Each of these crises have proven useful for scoring political points and winning elections but the cost has become an overwhelming burden on the country. The Biden administration would be a case study in how winning is actually losing.
Do you think that the people who created this policy believe that voters don't care much about the border?
That seems to depend upon polling data. Which, in turn, is influenced by how the questions are framed.
The 'pathway to citizenship' is a slogan and not a policy. The Biden administrations appears to be more interested in creating slogans than policy. Polling data on the popularity of slogans isn't a substitute for actually addressing problems.
Another slogan is "comprehensive immigration reform", which simply means amnesty.
This coming from a individual who has never really been to our Southern border herself to see with her own eyes what really goes on. What a pathetic hypocrite!
The Dems have shown by their actions, and lack thereof, that they have no interest in immigration reform. They seem to be happy with the current onslaught, which will eventually bite them in the ass.
Wasn't there a recent Republican plan on immigration what would have included a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers along with some wishlist items of the GOP? And didn't it die quickly due to gaining no Democrat support? I seem to remember something like that...
The last one I remember was the one Rubio cowrote and voted against because the Populists are running the show. If there was another more recent I'd be interested in the details.
At least they had one. Have not seen the same from the Dems in the last two years.
This might be the one your thinking of:
The one I'm thinking of happened... or..er... didn't happen in 2018. The House voted strickly along party lines and at the time the GOP had control. Even though days before Rubio was whipping for the bill he co-wrote the Trump Populists drove him and the rest to all vote to kill it.
There have been several bills introduced (for smaller incremental changes) with no hope of passage. On the Dem side they are mostly from Sen. Gary Peters [D-MI], but there are others. With no chance of passage it's not worth my time to read them for substance.
Does this dumbass understand that the Democrats have had over 2 years to get this done?
In a word, NO!
On the hand, she’s correct. Congress absolutely needs to legislate better border security laws, including getting rid of the current asylum handling process. Congress absolutely needs to make sure dishonest, presidents, like the current one, can’t subvert and undercut a functioning border. The laws needs to be rewritten to assume the president will act in bad faith, like Biden, and tie his hands so he can’t implement open borders on his own accord.
that said, there’s more than enough authority available to a president acting in good faith under the current system to end this debacle. An easy start would be reinstating every Trump era policy he overturned, and try to renegotiate Every diplomatic deal trump made with other countries that Biden unilaterally tore up upon assuming office.
that will never happen. Solely because it would be an admission that Trumps policies were working and by default admitting that the Democrat / Biden policies were utter failures (like there is any doubt).
That’s true - constitutionally - but a “leader” in the White House could craft a plan and submit it to congressional leaders. Instead, we get “it’s up to Congress. There’s nothing I can do.”
There’s more to this problem than just handing out legal status to anyone who wants it. Major legislation on this from the 20th century put limits on immigration and that still makes sense. I hate the total lack of thought for consequences behind the “pathway to citizenship” crowd. Even Obama wanted to put conditions on it:
But you don’t hear that kind of talk anymore. I mean earn their way? Are you serious? Learn English??? Pay a penalty? Go to the back of the line? Fuck that, am I right, Kamala?
Finally a cogent argument. There isn't much there I can disagree with. Harris talks too much in soundbites and rarely has anything of substance. It was one of the reasons why I never thought of her as a contender during the Dems Primary.
How does legal status address the drain on resources to provide shelter and support for immigrants flooding across the border? Under current immigration rules, immigrants from Venezuela already have legal status. But that legal status hasn't lessened the drain on resources.
The 'pathway to citizenship' has become nothing more than political smoke to obscure the real problem. Harris seems to be floating the idea that citizenship means governments can simply ignore these people. Apparently governments are not obligated to provide resources to shelter and support citizens. Maybe that explains why homelessness is problem that governments are ignoring. Turning illegal immigrants into homeless citizens makes the problem go away, according to what Harris is implying.
If I'm not mistaken, Cubans and those from another country (Haiti? and one of the triangle countries?) who illegally entered also get automatic refugee status and all of the government benefits that go with that status.
I'd like to know how the Biden/Harris Administration is going to handle "immigrants" - legal or illegal - who apply for citizenship. They're piloting a new citizenship test, and so far, it looks pretty easy.