Regarding the June 5 front page article, “Biden to counter criticism by capping refugee acceptances”:
If President Biden truly believes there is a crisis at the border, why did he wait until the end of his first term to act? Border Patrol reported encountering about 250,000 migrants in December, a monthly number that has fallen by about 30 percent in recent months. Even if the administration believes there is a chance that this new executive order will be struck down by the courts, what harm would have been done by trying this tactic sooner?
Stephen James Peterson of Irvine, California
Did Glinda the Good Witch recently tell President Biden that he had the authority to close the border all along? Since the beginning of fiscal year 2021, there have been more than 8 million encounters between migrants and federal agents at the southern land border. This does not include the at least 1.7 million migrants who have evaded Border Patrol and are living in the United States without documentation or immigration vetting. This action by President Biden is too little, too late.
Larry Penner, Great Neck, NY
President Biden, your executive order to turn away asylum seekers reeks of election year politics. Fellow Americans, please do not fall for racist propaganda. We must follow international law to protect asylum seekers. If there is an issue with daily capacity limits, congressional leaders should increase the resources needed to house all asylum seekers crossing the border.
We are facing a refugee crisis the likes of which we haven't seen since World War II. We need Marshall Plan 2.0. Many of these refugees come from all over the world, not just North and South America. Many of these exhausted crowds come to us fleeing bombs, war criminals, and cross-border gangs. It is a travesty and a disgrace to American history that these people undertake long and dangerous journeys only to be rejected. This is no longer the America that many of our ancestors found at Ellis Island. If we are not living up to our mission as a shining city on a hill, we should return the Statue of Liberty to France.
Howard Dotson, Minneapolis
Regarding George F. Will's June 6th op-ed, “Biden Once Again Proves He's an Expert on Disruption”:
Those of us who are often delighted by Will's grammatical knowledge and historical allusions should be shocked by the column's descent into chauvinistic immigrant bashing. References to caravans, foreigners, and “migrant stampedes” echo the rhetoric of the felons he so eloquently denounces. Will's standard understanding of political nuance is absent from his fierce indictment of the evils of executive discretion, and while he alludes to congressional “green room” dysfunction, he ignores the well-documented fact that Republicans succumbed to demagogues earlier this year when lawmakers, apparently at the behest of Donald Trump, killed a bipartisan immigration bill.
If all this weren't enough to call into question Will's reputation as a highly sophisticated and historically-backed political commentator, the essay is so sharp it puts the restrictionist message of the likes of Stephen Miller to shame in its bizarre exaggeration of the threat that immigration poses to social “order” and its failure to acknowledge America's rich and important immigration tradition. Will is commendable for acknowledging the significant contributions that immigration has made to economic growth, but falls short in overlooking the thankless labor of countless farm workers and hospitality workers whose legal status is still pending.
Perhaps more importantly, Will’s essay demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of American values such as compassion and concern for the weak and needy among us, including the “flocking masses” who often flee persecution and poverty on foreign shores.
Edward Trevelyan, St. Michaels, Maryland
As George F. Will knows, our two major parties and three branches of government have fought over immigration policy and largely failed to improve it…forever. More recently, there have been failed efforts under Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Biden worked with one of the most conservative members of Congress, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who described their compromise as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.” Who killed that opportunity? Republicans acting on Trump’s behalf. Trump wanted the issue to remain unresolved so he could use it as a campaign bludgeon. The very Republicans who, as Will says, see governing as a “spectator sport.”
But it wasn't just Will's handling of immigration that puzzled me. He mocked Biden's focus on preserving democracy, despite the actions and words that endanger it. Will spoke of the “fraying of society” caused by Biden's failures, but failed to acknowledge that Biden must confront the legacy of the man who has created the greatest division in American life since the Civil War. Will criticized Biden's “syntactic labyrinth” of speech, despite the president being a man who famously stutters and utters gibberish for hours every time he opens his mouth.
I cannot understand how Will could claim to have failed a president who has delivered a near-perfect recovery from a historic pandemic (which Trump handled terribly), record low unemployment, record high stock prices, huge investments in infrastructure, low inflation, $35 insulin, expanded veterans benefits, strengthened NATO, and aided Ukraine — important accomplishments achieved during the most difficult of times.
No, this country is not falling apart because of Joe Biden, it is surviving because of Joe Biden. If it feels like the country is falling apart (and that may be the only thing we can agree on), it's because a very destructive con man and a very cowardly political party have fallen in love with each other, all of which is to the detriment of the American people, our nearly 250-year-old democracy, and frankly, the well-being of the entire world.
Rebecca Spence, New Providence, New Jersey
How Biden can win over Latinos
As an undocumented immigrant from Mexico receiving Deferred Action for Young People's Deportation, I couldn't help but respond to Luis Miranda's May 31 op-ed, “Democrats are Shortchanging Latinos.”
I agree with Miranda's most important point: the Latino community is diverse, and President Biden is in grave danger of losing our votes by ignoring it. I want to be clear on one point about what I think is the best way for Biden to rectify this oversight.
“Democrats often assume that immigration reform is their only hope of winning over Latino voters,” Miranda writes. He's right that immigration reform is not Latino voters' only concern. By definition, Latino voters have been on their immigration journey for at least five years, the typical period during which one must obtain permanent residency before naturalizing. They move on to other issues that directly affect their families. And, of course, 9.7% of U.S. Latino voters are Puerto Rican and U.S. citizens, so immigration may not have been a pressing personal concern for them.
But for voters like my sister-in-law, aunts, uncles, cousins, and the more than 10 million Americans who live with illegal immigrants, immigration reform is an existential issue. These voters represent the 60.5% of U.S. Latinos who are of Mexican descent. Our mixed-status households are highly vulnerable to any dramatic changes to immigration policy, such as an end to DACA.
Both parties are likely to ignore the sizable Mexican American vote in California, a surefire Democratic win, and Texas, a projected Republican win. But Mexican American voters and mixed-race families could help determine who wins in Arizona and Nevada, as well as other battleground states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Given this practical and political reality, I urge Biden to use his executive power to provide legal status and work authorization to undocumented spouses and parents of U.S. citizens, as well as to Dreamers who are not eligible for DACA. President Barack Obama granted DACA to young undocumented immigrants like me in 2012. That fall, he won 71% of Latino voters, up from 67% in 2008.
It would be the humane thing for Biden to do this, and it would give millions of voters, families like mine, a fantastic reason to go to the polls and support his reelection.
The author is Vice President of the Resurrection Project.
Workers companies need
As reported in our May 23 front-page story, “Trump's Immigration Policies Could Hurt the Job Market,” inaction on immigration reform is exacerbating our nation's ongoing labor shortage. There are approximately 8.1 million job openings in the United States, but approximately 6.6 million unemployed workers are looking to fill them. This means that if we were to hire all job seekers, there would be approximately 1.4 million unfilled jobs. It is no wonder that many industries are suffering from severe labor shortages, stunting economic growth and hurting America's competitiveness.
Immigrants have historically been an important part of our workforce, but our outdated and overly restrictive workforce policies prevent many willing people from contributing to our economy, stifle innovation and productivity, and place undue burdens on businesses struggling to meet demand.
Expanding access to foreign workers and streamlining the work authorization process for asylum seekers would provide much-needed relief to struggling business owners, ensure access to a long-term talent pipeline, and help people trying to raise their families in the United States.
Lawmakers must act now. American employers need workers, and people are willing to do the jobs. Put politics over policy, and get moving.
The author is executive director of the Critical Labor Coalition.
