WASHINGTON — A trio of House progressives are forming a group aimed at reshaping the national immigration debate away from controls on immigration. southern border and to correct the root causes of migration to the U.S.
The new Congressional Caucus on Global Migration will be co-chaired by Reps. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., Greg Casar, D-Texas, and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif. On a one page memofirst reported by NBC News, Democrats say families around the world are migrating at unprecedented rates “in search of safety and stability” due to a global mix of “violence, civil wars, human rights violations, democratic setbacks, economic exclusion and climate instability.”
But instead of tightening the rules to exclude asylum seekers, they instead propose examining “the factors and conditions that displace or cause people to migrate” to the US and devise domestic and foreign policy solutions that lessen the need for them. people migrate. The caucus says it plans to hold quarterly actions, including “round tables, briefings, special order speeches, parallel hearings [and] public toolkits” to encourage Congress to take meaningful action.
“We Democrats have done a terrible job of talking about immigration and the root causes of migration,” Ramirez said in an interview. “We have just been reactive and apologetic instead of actually moving in a direction that positions Congress as an effective ally in global efforts that create a safer, more equitable world where people don’t have to come to the U.S.”
The new caucus, which features 14 founding members of the House, comes as immigration has become a major issue for President Joe Biden during his re-election bid this year, prompting the White House and moderate Democrats to adopt some Conservative proposals to tighten the US border and asylum laws. Former President Donald Trump called for a crackdown on immigration in his presidential bid. Progressives, who were on the offensive over immigration policy a decade ago, are now at a disadvantage and are calling on their party not to adopt Republican attitudes that demand a more restrictive system.
Ramirez and Casar said the U.S. should seek to mitigate the need for migration with policies such as increasing humanitarian aid, avoiding destabilizing sanctions on countries like Venezuela and tightening gun laws to prevent Mexican gangs and cartels from causing gun violence. from the USA at home.
“Right now, much of the conversation in Congress talks about the border as if immigration starts at the border, and it doesn’t. It starts in people’s countries of origin,” said Casar. “And almost no one is talking about it.
“When I recently spoke with the Mexican ambassador, the first issue he raised was that most of the weapons they confiscate from the cartels come from the United States,” Casar continued. “And a large portion of them from Texas, because you can buy a gun without a background check and without a license in Texas. … The United States should ensure that we work to not contribute to further violence and destabilization in Mexico.”
Republicans argue the U.S. border is overwhelmed with more asylum seekers than it can process because Biden reversed Trump’s policies to stop migration. Democratic leaders, aware of polls showing that the Republican Party is more confident in immigration, have accepted the need for a higher requirement to seek asylum. But the new Chamber bench disagrees.
Asked why immigration policy has moved to the right, Ramirez blamed, in part, the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory espoused by the far right and some members of Congress. He baselessly posits that a liberal cabal is using immigration policies and other means to replace white voters with non-white voters to benefit Democrats.
“There is a real belief that white people are being replaced and that they have to do whatever it takes to survive all of us who come into this country,” Ramirez said, adding that Republicans “decided that immigration and people seeking asylum would be the No. 1 strategy to win the White House or destabilize the Democrats” and that his party has not done enough to counter that narrative.
The three legislators have their eyes on an important task. In July 2021, the White House appointed Vice President Kamala Harris as part of a “Root Cause Strategy” to address the underlying crises in Central America that fuel migration. But this produced no results as the US asylum system became even more overwhelmed.
“With this political convention, we are sending the message that Democrats want to tackle the global migration crisis. This crisis is a foreign policy issue that goes beyond the southern border,” said Kamlager-Dove.
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
