YUMA, Arizona – Ohio’s Jim Jordan was indignant that his Democratic counterparts on the House Judiciary Committee suggested his decision to conduct a field hearing in Yuma, Ariz., on the nation’s immigration problems amounted to empty political grandstanding, and boycotted the hearing.
“It’s a shame that the Democrats did not join us today in Yuma. They would have learned a thing or two,” Jordan said as he kicked off a Thursday public meeting on immigration issues in the city’s council chambers. The hearing followed a night visit to the border and meetings with hospital, food bank, and agriculture officials who described how a flood of migrants are stressing local infrastructure. “They would have heard directly from the people here in Yuma who lived President Biden’s border crisis each and every day.”
Jordan, a Republican from Urbana whose district includes Lima, has vowed to use his powerful new post as chairman of the committee to open new investigations and to press forward on key issues, starting with immigration. But he will be hard pressed to change policy without the help of Democrats, a hurdle acknowledged by many of the Republicans who accompanied him on the trip.
Democrats control the U.S. Senate and the White House. And President Joe Biden’s administration has said its own border policies are working, pointing to lagging numbers of interactions between agents and migrants at the southern border. Asked last week about another administration immigration proposal, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre chided Congress for not acting on what she called Biden’s “comprehensive immigration reform proposal.”
“We don’t see anybody else providing any other solutions, when it comes to Congress. We don’t. We’ve provided solution after solution. The President, again, on day one, provided a comprehensive reform — immigration reform proposal. Put it out there on the first day. Republicans have rejected it. And so, we are trying to put forward a way to move forward with an immigration policy that secures our border, that is safe, and that is humane,” she said.
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Jordan ally from Florida, pointed out that Republicans couldn’t get a meaningful immigration bill to former President Donald Trump’s desk even when Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress.
“The headwinds are substantial, especially for what I think needs to be done,” said Gaetz, who would like to seal the border, enforce immigration laws that are already on the books, and reform what he calls “birthright citizenship by fraud,” where non-citizens have babies in the United States so the child will have U.S. citizenship and the rights it provides.
California’s Tom McClintock, who chairs the Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee, said passing legislation will be difficult with the current composition of Congress.
“Both sides are far apart, and there’s a trust issue,” he said. “If the administration refuses to enforce existing immigration law, how can you trust they will enforce future laws? Congress writes the laws, but the administration is supposed to enforce them.”
McClintock and most of the other Republicans on the trip said they support Texas Republican Chip Roy’s proposal that would require immigration authorities to detain any migrant claiming asylum until his or her claim has been adjudicated, or to turn them away if they can’t be detained.
McClintock also says asylum laws shouldn’t apply to immigrants who traversed other safe countries on their way to the United States without seeking asylum there, those who entered the United States illegally, or those who were convicted of crimes in their home countries. He plans to hold hearings on eight separate bills.
“It will require the American people stepping in, in another election, before we get a Congress willing to pass laws and more importantly, a president who is willing to enforce them,” McClintock said.
Wisconsin’s Tom Tiffany was more optimistic that change could happen under the current political alignment. He said securing the border should come before fixing the immigration system.
“If we can get a package of bills together and get them through the house, I think we have a real chance for reform here in America because the American people know that this is a huge problem for our country. We’re giving up our sovereignty.”
Several Republicans on the trip batted around novel ideas to secure Democrats support. Indiana’s Victoria Spartz facetiously suggested that Democrats might support more walls along the border if they could put solar panels on them.
Spartz and Republican Paul Gosar of Arizona, who represents much of the Yuma area in Congress, also discussed whether an old law written to thwart pirates could be used to give border control agents more access to Native American tribal lands along the border. McClintock dismissed that idea.
Spartz, who is an immigrant from Ukraine, described the current situation on the border as “a national security crisis.”
“We are a country of immigrants but you need to come legally,” said Spartz. “Open borders put people in danger. The president’s policies are allowing cartels to make lots of money off modern day slavery. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It is unacceptable what they are doing.”
Gosar noted that labor leader and civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association union was born in Yuma and opposed illegal immigration because it undercut the pay of legal workers.
“This community, more than any other, has been crippled by the cost of crime interdiction, drugs and human trafficking,” said Gosar.
Jordan said in an interview that he plans to use his post as House Judiciary Committee chairman to push through legislation that would restore the remain in Mexico policy that was instituted during Trump’s presidency, tighten immigration enforcement, and alter federal policies on handling unaccompanied alien children.
He’d also like to increase penalties for visa overstays and restrict the Biden administration from expanding use of a parole provision that allows noncitizens to remain in the United States without the promise of longtime residence. The Department of Homeland Security is extending parole to tens of thousands of Venezualans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans each month. Jordan says parole should be used on a case-by-case basis, not extended to large groups.
“We’re going to get them through the House and see what the Senate does,” said Jordan.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says encounters with Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans have been “plummeting,” though, since announcing a new administration policy in January that it says was “expanding safe and orderly lawful processes for migration while applying consequences to those who do not avail themselves of those processes.”
In January, U.S. Border Patrol encounters between southwest border ports of entry last month totaled 128,410, down 42% from the 221,675 reported in December 2022, according to a February report from the agency. The seven-day average of encounters with Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans dropped from 1,231 on Jan. 5, the day the policy was announced, to 59 on Jan. 31, even as encounters with other groups began to rebound from a seasonal drop.
While the Biden Administration has made some of its own immigration policy changes, the president also has called for Congress to act on legislation that would offer a pathway to legal status to millions of unauthorized immigrants already in the country. His proposal also would reform the family-based immigration system, expand certain other kinds of visas and “address root causes of migration,” such as offering more aid to some countries where its citizens are fleeing.
Several Republicans on the committee said they might be able to work with Democrats to pass immigration legislation.
“I don’t think it’s a red or blue issue,” said South Carolina freshman Russell Fry, who chaired a bipartisan task force to fight opioids in his home state. “I think fentanyl overdoses affect Democrats, just as much as they do Republicans. I think there’s a lot of Democrats that privately will tell you that they recognize it’s a problem. Now it’s time to put their money where their mouth is and let’s go fix the issue.”
North Carolina’s Dan Bishop, who was among a group of Republicans who refused to support Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid unless he made concessions, said that battle showed the importance of “not being resigned to defeat
“One of the problems we have in our politics is the lack of will,” said Bishop. “Folks have been much too quick to say ‘Oh, that can’t happen.” There are ways it can happen.”
Virginia’s Ben Cline said that Republicans would like to move forward legislation with cooperation from Democrats, but even having the discussion would “move the ball forward in articulating the debate.”
“The problem’s out there and a debate needs to be had about how to solve it,” Cline said. “The Democrats ignored the problem for the time that they were in the majority, and we are committed to confronting it and addressing it for the American people.”
