National Review Online
Friday, June 28, 2019
There didn’t seem much room for Democrats to move left on
immigration, but they’ve found it.
On the first night of the Democratic debates, Julian
Castro made a big issue of his call to repeal Section 1325 of Title 8 of the
United States Code, which says it’s a federal crime to enter the country
without authorization. This felt like a ploy for attention from the periphery
of the second-tier debate stage, yet last night seven out of the ten candidates
raised their hands for the idea, including top contenders Kamala Harris, Bernie
Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg.
The collective posture of the party is getting closer and
closer to open borders, only without embracing the label.
Illegal immigrants aren’t typically prosecuted under
Section 1325, although the Bush administration started a program called
“Operation Streamline” to increase prosecutions, hoping to discourage would-be
crossers and especially to create a deterrent against illegal reentry (illegal
entry is a misdemeanor often punished by time served, whereas illegal reentry
is a felony). Such prosecutions were a key element of Trump’s family-separation
policy that had to be quickly abandoned.
The repeal of Section 1325 would send a message of
permissiveness that would create another incentive for migrants to come across
the border, and remove a tool for going after coyotes (it can be difficult to
prove their offense, so prosecuting them for illegal entry is a backstop).
Section 1325 has been on the books for 90 years, and it reflects the
commonsense view that entering the United States without lawful permission
should be a crime. Yes, it’d still be a civil offense to be present in the
United States without papers, and in theory, still possible to be deported —
although this brings us to the rest of the Democratic approach to immigration.
Asked if an illegal immigrant in the interior of the
country who hasn’t committed another crime should be deported, Joe Biden
replied that such a person “should not be the focus of deportation.” Kamala
Harris said he “absolutely” should not be deported, and Representative Eric
Swalwell said “that person can be part of this great American experience.” This
is a promise to gut interior enforcement that, coupled with the latitudinarian
attitude at the border, would be a huge step toward open borders.
If there were any doubt that Democrats want to welcome
illegal immigrants and treat them like U.S. citizens, seeing every single
candidate on the stage last night promising to provide government health
insurance to illegal immigrants removes it. This, obviously, would be even more
of a magnet to illegal immigration, and would erode the difference between U.S.
citizens and people who literally showed up the day before yesterday in
violation of our laws. Besides, the U.S. government is under enough fiscal
strain providing promised benefits to citizens and legal residents without, in
effect, extending the safety net to some percentage of the population of
Northern Triangle countries.
The Democrats’ radicalism on immigration is certainly a
political mistake that will give President Trump ready fodder next year. We’d
say it’s impossible for Democrats to get any further out on this limb, but the
next round of debates is only a month away.
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