Still no immigration bill

The bill to fund military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan was finally passed last week, much to the relief of concerned Americans and their allies. Iowa’s four members in the House of Representatives and Senators Grassley and Ernst all voted for the measure.

One hundred GOP House members voted no, as did 15 GOP Senators. Democrats passed the bill in both chambers. Although Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “I think we’ve turned the corner on the isolationist movement,” it’s doubtful everyone has. McConnell blamed former president Trump for contributing to the delay in funding.

McConnell lamented the lack of immigration reform in this bill. It had been part of the original bi-partisan bill passed earlier in the Senate. “It does not include provisions for tougher security on the border,” McConnell said. “It was included in the bipartisan deal in February, but Trump urged Republicans to kill it.”

McConnell didn’t hide his frustration. “We all felt the border was a disaster. We had this effort to pass a law, which requires you to deal with Democrats,” he said. “Then our nominee for president didn’t seem to want us to do anything.” Senator Lindsay Graham surprisingly made the same observation soon after.

The original bill would have included an additional $20 billion to secure the border and deal with a multitude of border issues.

This was not the first legislation to secure the border, then have it killed by conservative Republicans. When George W. Bush became president, immigration reform was one of his priorities. Nothing was accomplished during his first term, but in January 2007, Bush introduced his Plan for Comprehensive Immigration Reform and called on Congress to take action.

Bush was passionate about getting something done on immigration, but had no better luck than administrations before and after him. Republican critics said illegal workers were people who break American laws. They voiced fears that illegal immigrants would be given a free and automatic path to citizenship. GOP members of Congress were dead-set against Bush’s plan, mostly it was said, to avoid alienating white conservatives who made up their Republican base.

The loudest voice of all was firebrand, Rush Limbaugh, who claimed the bill would destroy the Republican Party. By June 2007, debate on immigration reform was over and done.

Past history is why the bipartisan bill written last February by Republican James Lankford and Democrat Chris Murphy was such a big deal. Democrats made many concessions in order to get Republicans on board and Lankford, as conservative as they come, was very happy with the results. It was a really good comprehensive immigration bill. It would have added hundreds of federal agents and judges to address the problems at the border, and it passed in the Democrat-controlled Senate. President Joe Biden was prepared to sign it.

Because of Trump’s self-serving opposition, Speaker Mike Johnson refused to even bring the bill to the floor, and the level of frustration in Congress rose to new heights. Added to the mix was the ridiculous impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the House - as though that would be a solution for immigration reform.

Considering Mitch McConnell’s public statements that the immigration reform bill was blocked by Trump, the recent column by Iowa Senator Joni Ernst was dumbfounding. The inflammatory language in her message to Iowans on immigration was unbelievable.

She wrote, “Democrats in the Senate refuse to wake up and address the crisis.” What does Ernst think that bipartisan bill was addressing?

She was way over the top feeding into a fear of illegal immigrants, talking about victims of their crimes, using words like “women are afraid” and “sleeping with one eye open” and “police are being assaulted” and “mass murders” and “how many young Americans must die?”

She accused Mayorkas of “enticing illegal immigrants to come to our borders.” She accused Democrats of “turning a blind eye to their failed border policies.”

Ernst had a lot to say about the need for immigration reform, but not one word about the immigration reform bill killed by Trump (who she just endorsed again). She hammered Democrats about problems at the southern border, but gave them zero credit for passing good legislation to deal with it.

Ernst needs a lesson in bipartisanship. It’s bipartisanship that solves problems.