The large numbers of migrants seeking safety in the United States pose a serious humanitarian crisis. But, believe it or not, they also present an unprecedented opportunity.
Make no mistake: America’s outdated immigration policies are complex and fraught with difficulties. Not only are our laws ill-equipped to meet our needs, but illegal immigration also presents one of our most significant political and moral challenges today.
Yet, while there are no quick fixes to the problems we face, the humanitarian crisis at the border presents an opportunity for political coalition-building like never before. With strong federal leadership and cooperation across the aisle, policymakers can address the situation at the border in a manner that unites the public and reinvigorates our national values.
For a good start, look at the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, introduced in late April in both the Senate and House. True to its name, the bill represents a bipartisan approach that would begin to address the challenges at our border.
The last time Congress passed meaningful reform of the immigration system was in 1986, more than three decades ago, with the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Congress notably failed to pass effective immigration reform in 2006, 2007, and, most recently, in 2013.
The government’s failure to modernize our immigration system has created a credibility gap with the public. Even as a growing number consider immigration reform to be a top policy priority, they find nothing but partisan posturing from their elected officials.
In order to regain the public’s trust, the government must show that it can capably manage the influx at the border and reliably enforce the laws. The proper response to this challenge is to provide the Department of Homeland Security and its partner agencies with the resources to repair the vulnerabilities in our system and reform immigration laws to cure deficiencies.
Many of the thousands of migrants who have crossed the border this year are unaccompanied children and desperate families, people seeking to escape the threat of violent crime, gang violence, and extreme poverty in their home countries. If the U.S. had a functioning immigration system, we would be equipped to receive, house, shelter, and process these migrants. Unfortunately, we don’t, and we aren’t.
This humanitarian crisis at the border should be our wake-up call. Our current system is what enables these regular surges in migrant influxes at the border. It fails to deliver prompt relief to those fleeing persecution, and it strains our border communities. The right kind of bipartisan reform has to address all of these issues.
I know that such reform is possible. By employing robust screening and vetting practices, reducing enormous immigration court backlogs, and focusing resources on infrastructure and personnel at and between the ports of entry, we can streamline the immigration process while keeping our border secure and our communities safe. We have to break out of the partisan deadlock that views immigration as an all-or-nothing issue.
Many people are all too eager to grandstand about the situation at the border. They depict what is an essentially humanitarian crisis as an intractable threat to national security and advocate for the extreme measure of shutting down the border instead of reforming our immigration system.
But as a national security leader who served in the George W. Bush administration, I can speak from experience that the increase in apprehensions at the border does not indicate a threat to national security. Customs and Border Protection is doing its job effectively by apprehending nearly all those who attempt to cross. Quite to the contrary, shutting down our border to legal immigrants and failing to take this opportunity to improve our immigration system are what would truly threaten our national security.
Of course, the most pressing issue is to address the care of migrant children at the border. CBP facilities are designed to hold adults for a few hours and are wholly inappropriate for sheltering vulnerable children.
The Biden administration has moved additional resources to the border via the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other emergency facilities in Texas. These actions are already showing some benefit: The administration has reduced the total number of children held in CBP custody by 55%, and it has reduced the average length of stay at long-term shelters from about 150 days at some points last year to an average of under 30 days.
These are encouraging first steps, particularly when done in conjunction with state and local authorities, but the Biden administration must also engage Congress and our foreign partners in Mexico and Central America to address the root causes of migration. For example, the administration must work closely with Mexico and other foreign partners to combat human trafficking and smuggling networks, while expanding asylum protections for children and families so that fleeing to the U.S. is not what some see as their only hope at a better life.
How we respond to this humanitarian crisis will show the world our values. It will show whether we prioritize life, human decency, and order or whether we would prefer our own partisan political opinions to the good of all.
Families and unaccompanied children seeking asylum at the border do not pose a national security threat to the U.S. Let’s treat them with the dignity they deserve.
Douglas Baker served as special assistant and senior director for border security and transportation security to President George W. Bush. He is a principal with Baker Global Advisory, an advisory and consulting firm focused on emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa. He is a member of the Council on National Security and Immigration.
