With images of more than 10,000 migrants a day showing up at the U.S. border, recent monthly figures reaching 300,000 and more migrant caravans en route, it’s clear the U.S. can’t process all the people who want in.
The resulting humanitarian crisis pushes us to call on President Joe Biden and the Democrats (yes, the Dems, too) to see the situation for what it is. An emergency that needs immediate attention and fundamental changes.
We’re not advocating for the gate to be shut, but it needs to be pulled in tighter. At least, for now. Biden, who does have a strong track record of bipartisan deal-making, has to do something. His re-election depends on it.
Those images of young and old, and so many parents carrying children toward what they hope is a better life, are heartbreaking and difficult to un-see.
Yes, we want emphatic leadership. We want the U.S. to continue addressing the root causes of migration from Central and South American countries that need bold political reforms, and the will and resources to go after criminal gangs, seemingly in charge.
But we have to take care of business on our side of the border, too. The U.S. must now enact emergency measures because our court system of asylum processing is overloaded and can’t handle what’s on its dockets.
Biden has called for more judges. But that’s not the answer – it’s just not enough.
Migrants wait in limbo for shots at citizenship or residency and with the federal government not able to move quickly enough, Colorado cities as large as Denver and towns as small as Carbondale are quickly becoming strained.
In early November, Carbondale residents were stunned to see about 80 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, living under a bridge spanning the Roaring Fork River. The migrants had already been there for weeks, and were drawn to the area after hearing about labor shortages in the ski, hospitality, service and construction industries. Like many mountain communities, these labor shortages are real. We’re all familiar with the reasons – the lack of affordable housing being a primary one.
The Carbondale Board of Trustees has committed to sheltering about 100 people through March. But that’s all it can do in this town of less than 7,000. Mayor Ben Bohmfalk said, “You’ll probably feel these impacts in your community soon.”
Bohmfalk asked the state for $224,000 in emergency funds after the group grew to more than 120, and increased the town’s unhoused population by 500% and the town’s population by 2%.
If this were the case in Durango or Bayfield or Mancos or Cortez, local nonprofits would surely step up, as well as city and county governments. Our well of compassion is deep in the Southwest, but our communities don’t have long-term resources for this kind of predicament.
At this time, the federal government offers no resources or guidance to help municipalities cope. A $1.4 billion request by the Biden administration for this purpose is included in a funding request now stalled in Congress. But overall immigration policy needs more scrutiny from the top down, coming from Biden’s office.
In 2018, Biden called out Donald Trump’s administration on immigration, saying separating young children from their parents isn’t a “deterrent” and is “unconscionable.” He was right. We don’t agree with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stringing barbed wire in the middle of the Rio Grande either.
But Biden is in charge. No matter that immigration seems a conundrum – he’s ultimately responsible.
It’s no easy task to write compromise legislation for robust border-security laws that will actually pass Congress. Biden doesn’t want to be the “asylum denier in chief” – we get it.
But he is the commander in chief. Unless Biden takes urgent action, he will pay at the polls.
