Without mincing words in her criticism, [Congresswoman Alexandria ] Ocasio-Cortez, who is popularly referred as AOC, said: “This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay - no matter the administration or party."AOL framed that criticism by noting that it is still early in the new Administration. "“Our fraught, unjust immigration system will not transform in that time. That’s why bold re-imagination is so impt (important)."
“Our immigration system is built on a carceral framework. It’s no accident that challenging how we approach both these issues are considered “controversial” stances. They require reimagining our relationship to each other and challenging common assumptions we take for granted,” tweeted AOC, who is considered among the top progressive leaders in the US.
This is not a continuation of the performative sadism we saw in the Trump-Pence policy of kidnapping migrant children from their parents. But "not as bad of Trump" cannot be the measure of acceptability.
The target population of this newly-announced facility is non-accompanied minors crossing the border. Typically, they have relatives living in the US. And if we had a sane, practical, humane immigration policy, the government would place them with relatives without using it as a cover for arresting the relatives on immigration charges. Silvia Foster-Frau reports on the new facility for the Washington Post in First migrant facility for children opens under Biden 02/23/2021:
But immigration lawyers and advocates question why the Biden administration would choose to reopen a Trump-era facility that was the source of protests and controversy. From the “tent city” in Tornillo, Tex., to a sprawling for-profit facility in Homestead, Fla., emergency shelters have been criticized by advocates for immigrants, lawyers and human rights activists over their conditions, cost and lack of transparency in their operations. [my emphasis]Biden's program calls for comprehensive immigration reform of the kind that the Obama-Biden Administration proposed in 2013. But no comprehensive immigration reform will pass Congress unless the Senate filibuster power is removed. With a majority vote, Senate Democrats with Vice-President Harris as the tie-breaker vote could abolish the filibuster altogether or reform it by, for example, exempting immigration legislation from it. But if the Administration is proposing such comprehensive immigration reform without Senate Democrats agreeing to abolish the filibuster for it, they are proposing something they know will fail to pass.
Democrats recently introduced such a bill in Congress. "Republicans, for their part, began to decry the bill before it was announced, a potential sign that Biden’s proposal may join the congressional graveyard of efforts before it under both Democratic and Republican administrations." (Molly O'Toole and Andrea Castillo, Democrats unveil broad immigration reform bill with citizenship path for 11 million Los Angeles Times 02/18/2021)
It's a discouraging sign, though, that the Biden-Harris Administration is already leaking that they are not entirely serious about comprehensive immigration reform: "administration officials said that 'this is not a bipartisan bill,' and they signaled Wednesday that they view it more as an opening bid and don’t necessarily expect it to pass with the needed Republican support in its current form."
Everyone should be clear about this. Even a few Republicans in Congress might vote for it, no responsible, comprehensive, human immigration reform will be a bipartisan bill. The Republican Party of 2021 is a Trumpist, nativist, xenophobic party.
Biden's immigration policy is generally moving in the right direction, i.e., away from Trumpism and in the direction of common decency. John Hudak and Christine Stenglein describe Biden’s immigration reset in this 02/19/2021 at the Brookings Institute website.
But we really do need a reformed immigration policy written into law.
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