When Will Congress Do Their Job?

There is a humanitarian crisis and a national security crisis at the border. The Supreme Court decided on a 5-4 vote to allow Title 42 to remain in place temporarily. Conservatives questioned why Justice Neil Gorsuch did not vote with the majority. According to Jay Evensen, Gorsuch answered, “We are a court of law, not policymakers of last resort.” 

Since Title 42 was created “to keep asylum-seekers from crossing the border because of the threat of COVID-19,” it makes sense for the policy to end. The threat is no longer present, or in the words of Gorsuch “… the emergency on which those orders were promised has long since lapsed.”

According to a poll by Politico and Harvard University, 55% of Americans want to keep Title 42” with or without COVID-19. Their reason? It is a “good way to control immigration.” In other words, Americans know that Congress has failed them.

The biggest problem with the immigration system in the United States lies with Congress. The legislative branch of the federal government refuses to pass legislation for a workable immigration system. Evensen wrote the following in his opinion piece in the Deseret News:

Congress couldn’t even come up with a way for the children of undocumented parents, who were brought here through no fault of their own, to receive legal status. These so-called “Dreamers” enjoy much higher support form Americans. One poll by Pew Research Center found about three-fourths in favor of granting them legal status.

And yet lawmakers have fumbled this away. Their failure led President Barack Obama to impose a program for these children through executive order, which was briefly overturned by President Donald Trump before the Supreme Court intervened.

That’s the pattern of congressional inaction – let presidents issue executive orders that get challenged in court. If Congress would do as the Founding Fathers intended – struggle to negotiate and do the hard work of passing difficult laws – the nation could have a solution in place by now. Title 42 might be meaningless and border surges might be handled in an orderly manner.

It is far past time for Congress to do their job and pass a comprehensive immigration law that would. Such a law should include funding to create a border wall/fence/barrier that would allow Border Patrol to do their job in an orderly way. Another part of the law should allow for “Dreamers” and others like them to become legal residents of the United States. However, there should be no amnesty and promises of citizenship for anyone who is in the United States illegally.

We should not reward illegal immigrants with citizenship. The immigration bill should also include a clear definition of birth citizenship. If the mother is here illegally, her baby is also here illegally and should not automatically become U.S. citizens.