Immigration: When Good Policy is Better Practice

We met on Thursday, December 10, to figure out how to talk about immigration in our red districts. It was a “Better Practices” session. What we came up with was, “Let’s talk Policy.” We can agree with Republicans that our border policy needs repair. Maybe not just repair but a major overhaul. We can agree on that much. See the video here.

We will not agree that migrants are criminals. We will not agree to any kind of replacement conspiracy. And we will not agree that immigrants are stealing jobs from good Americans.

We can leave those disagreements on the sidelines for now. We can agree with our neighbors that we need to overhaul our immigration policy. Republicans, for their part, think they want to close the borders. We Democrats look ahead to climate refugees flooding north and know that we are not ready.

I say Republicans “think” they want to close the border. Pre-MAGA Republicans were ready to deal because they wanted workers. They understood our riposte that  “who is going to pay our social security” if we don’t import labor to stabilize our wage-earning population; they understood when we asked, “Who is going to harvest the food for our dinner table.”

For a policy overhaul, we need at least a few Republicans who know their economic calculus. Business needs labor. Local public officials need tax revenue and local retailers like customers coming through the door.

Maybe we should start small. Fund the immigration courts to do their job, for example…shorten the backlogs. If we need a counteroffer, we can agree to hire (and train) more border security. More boldly, we can push to legalize DACA.. Maybe we could even provide a pathway to citizenship for the 10-11 million people working under the table and legalize their employment, to the mutual relief of employee and employer.

This may be wishful thinking. What may be the most we can hope for is to agree that our immigration policy needs to be fixed. We don’t have to affix blame for “a broken policy.” We can ask politely, “What do you think we should do about it?” And then we can respond with stories, mixed with facts, about our own histories and those of our friends. Maybe we can move the dial.

For a deeper dive into immigration data, see Immigration: The Other Gun Debate

Don Schwerin is the Chair of the Ag and Rural Caucus of the Washington State Democrats. He is a former State Committee Person for the Walla Walla County Democrats.