Pressure and Punts on Immigration

Last week, House Speaker John Boehner effectively iced the yearlong, bipartisan immigrant reform effort when he announced that it the bill was unlikely to pass. The move comes amid loud opposition from right-wing activist groups like Heritage Action, which describes the bill as laying the groundwork for “mass amnesty.” The speaker’s genuflection to the activist base over a bill enjoying the support of Democrats, Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce, and the AFL-CIO is a tragic mistake that will unnecessarily worsen the lives of millions.

The plight of undocumented Americans has only worsened under President Obama. Deportations have only increased from the Bush era—almost two million have been deported during Obama’s presidency. The federal government spends more on immigration enforcement than the FBI, DEA, and Secret Service combined. Despite net-zero immigration from Mexico in the post-recession years, the Senate ponders a border surge that would put 19 border patrols per mile, construct a 700-mile fence, and employ drones, infrared cameras, and seismic sensors.

Closer to home, college-age students who are children of undocumented immigrants and did not come to this country of their own volition are placed precariously after the failure of the DREAM Act. They are not just numbers. They are our friends, our neighbors, and our classmates.

Harvard consistently admits undocumented students and endorses the DREAM Act. But that won’t be enough to effect change.

Given the self-evident necessity of reform of our dire immigration practices, it’s sad that Speaker Boehner will not pursue reform. The official reason given—that “The American people, including many of my members, don’t trust that the reform that we’re talking about will be implemented as intended to be”—is a weak attempt to blame the failure on the president rather than squeamish representatives.

But Boehner’s decision isn’t especially surprising. American stagnation on immigration comes amid immigration regression in Europe, where resurgent right-wing parties are pushing for quotas that threaten the very existence of the European Union. Strict limits on immigration to Switzerland were placed after a contentious referendum, and immigration restrictions are a key philosophy of the Greek semi-fascist Golden Dawn party and the Hungarian anti-Semitic Jobbik party.

Moral dilemma aside, the restriction of the free movement of people is antithetical to the free market ideology that many adherents of anti-immigration reform policies support. But the rising tide of xenophobia and nationalism, both here and abroad, seems to have overcome these considerations.

An estimated 11.7 million undocumented people live in the United States. It’s time to stop treating them like second-class citizens, for they too are Americans.