The politics of unreason at the border

Title 42 was a pandemic-driven emergency power the U.S. government employed at the Mexican border, first under the Trump administration. One of the strongest arguments for power a government might employ centers on control of a pandemic. Utilizing the measure meant that many potential border crossers could be turned away to another country without any kind of due process or examination of their claims for asylum.

The Biden administration has ended the public health emergency declared during COVID, and Title 42 will thus expire. With that expiration, the situation for those who hope to move into the United States becomes more favorable. The Trump administration introduced the measure back in 2020. Since that time, it has been used an estimated 2.5 million times to expel migrants.

On one hand, the declaration by the Biden administration that the health emergency is over should be welcomed. When governments grab new powers during crises, it is often difficult to wean them from their enhanced capacity to act. Certainly, many Americans felt the power of the government during the pandemic and they felt it as a stifling and sometimes oppressive force. Now, by the administration’s own admission, there is no longer any justification for the exercise of its emergency-based strength.

While the reduction in expanded government power is a welcome development, it only makes problems at the Mexican border worse. Reports indicate that people have been massing at the border with plans to cross as soon as Title 42 expires. The city of El Paso declared a state of emergency, given concerns about being overwhelmed by migrants who believe they will be able to stay in the U.S. without documentation.

The continuing chaos at the border illustrates the unconscionable failure of the American government to adopt any kind of effective public policy regarding migration. Our border with Mexico has long been relatively porous, with workers crossing and returning based on growing seasons and other opportunities. President Trump campaigned heavily for a wall both before and after his election in 2016. Certainly, the idea of such a wall captured imaginations for good and ill on both sides of the border. Some Americans liked the idea of a wall that could keep out unwanted visitors. Other Americans and many Mexicans found the passion behind the project offensive.

There are many reasons we need a government that actually does something about our border problems rather than endlessly posturing about it and making campaign hay. First, illegal immigration on a massive scale puts incredible pressure on the communities and states where the impact is immediate. It is unfair to expect them to bear that disproportionate weight without a long-term answer. Second, the United States has fallen well below replacement of our population as our birth rates decline. This decline in reproduction is alarmingly accompanied by an economy in which workers are increasingly difficult to find. Immigration is a possible way to add labor and paying for the entitlement programs that benefit the elderly.

Most people who cross the American border will seek work to support themselves and to send money back home. It is surely not desirable to live in a nation as an undocumented person who must fear doing things like reporting crimes out of a concern of being discovered and deported. Christian concern for the alien and the stranger dictates that we advocate for a better system.

What can the government do about it that hasn’t been tried? General amnesty approaches only encourage more of the same chaos and improvisation we’ve had for decades. We should at least consider a fairly simple answer that probably should have been adopted long ago. The United States should adopt a worker’s permit program that is highly accessible and simple. It should be about as easy to get as a passport. Mexican holders of such a permit could enter the United States in an orderly fashion. We would know who they are. They would have lawful status but not citizenship. They could pay taxes and help support our system.

What explains the lack of such an approach? It may the case that such a solution is not in the interest of various factions participating in retail politics where fears, hatreds, and vilification of enemies on both sides bloom. It is high time that our leaders come up with a real solution to this crisis.