{"id":21787,"date":"2019-08-02T14:37:44","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T18:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=21787"},"modified":"2019-08-02T14:37:46","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T18:37:46","slug":"open-borders-democrats-illegal-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/08\/02\/open-borders-democrats-illegal-immigration\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats as the \u201cOpen Borders\u201d Party is More than A Talking Point"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cOpen borders is a right-wing talking point,\u201d exclaimed former Obama Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro during the second night<\/a> of the Democratic presidential debates in Detroit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The talking point to which Castro was referring to was a Washington Post op-ed<\/a>\u00a0by Jeh Johnson, President Obama\u2019s former homeland security secretary, in which he wrote that decriminalizing illegal immigration was \u201ctantamount to a public declaration\u201d that \u201cour borders are effectively open to all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro then added that he was \u201cdisappointed that some\nfolks, including some folks on this stage, have taken the bait.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main problem with Castro\u2019s argument is that it is\nsimply wrong. The policies which were championed on the stage over two nights\nthis week are \u2013 or will lead to \u2013 an immigration policy that can only be\ndescribed as open borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decriminalization, which Castro placed at the center of his campaign platform, is just the start. Several candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts<\/a>, Kamala Harris of California<\/a>, and Cory Booker of New Jersey<\/a>, want to open the door to closing private detention centers, a restructuring of the Homeland Security department and sanctuary policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who oppose decriminalization include Johnson,\nformer Vice President Joe Biden, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, and Ohio Rep. Tim\nRyan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, and 66 percent of Americans and 47 percent of Democratic voters, according to a July NPR\/PBS NewsHour\/Marist\u00a0poll<\/a>. That survey also showed that even among self-identified progressive Democrats, a slight majority (54 percent) favor decriminalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The view of the Democratic Party as one of open\nborders is shared by more than just the right-wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cApart from the most anodyne of statements, it is almost impossible to separate their policies from what in effect is open borders, since they have offered no specific policies, other than the near-utopian notion of making Central American nations free of endemic poverty and rampaging gang violence,\u201d observed<\/a> author and former ABC News reporter Jeff Greenfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mother Jones\u2019 Kevin Drum conceded<\/a> in a piece accurately titled, \u201cAre Democrats Now the Party of Open Borders?\u201d that while he had in the past criticized \u201cRepublicans who accused liberals of wanting \u2018open borders,\u2019\u201d he acknowledges it is\u00a0 \u201chard to see much daylight between [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren\u2019s plan and\u00a0de facto<\/em>\u00a0open borders.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After listing a litany of anti-enforcement proposals,\nDrum asks the reader, \u201cAm I missing something here? Does Warren\u2019s plan\nexplicitly make it vanishingly unlikely that anyone crossing our border will\never be caught and sent back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Booker joined Castro in trying to assert that\nobjecting to open borders policies was somehow playing into Republican hands.\nWhen Biden said he favored an immigration approach that was merit-based, the\nformer Newark mayor contended that the former vice president was \u201cplaying into\nwhat the Republicans want, to pit some immigrants against other immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s not. Favoring immigrants based on merit criteria, such as job skills and advanced degrees, has been a\u00a0Democratic idea since the 1960s,\u201d wrote<\/a> William Saletan of the liberal online magazine Slate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro and Booker were trying mightily to use language\nto neutralize the few moderate voices that were heard on the stage in Detroit,\nbut the chorus of candidates were singing a definitively open borders tune. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOpen borders is a right-wing talking point,\u201d exclaimed former Obama Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro during the second night of the Democratic presidential debates in Detroit. The talking point to which Castro was referring to was a Washington Post op-ed\u00a0by Jeh Johnson, President Obama\u2019s former homeland security secretary, in which he wrote<\/p>\n

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