Immigration: Stalemate on Unifying Separated Immigrant Families
March 19, 2020
The following is a reflection on Tuesday’s online article by “The Hill” – Public Policy Expert: US Faces “Crisis of Governance on Immigration.”
As we continue to face an influx of migrants (especially children) crossing the United States’ southern border Justin Gest, an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University weighs in. He states that we are not facing a crisis in migration but instead facing a ” crisis of governance..
Gest points out that lawmaking in Congress is essentially paralyzed by the Democrats and Republicans being so polarized in their politics that even where there is a lot of common ground for the democrats and republicans (not wanting children separated from their parents) they still cannot reach sufficient accord to pass meaningful legislation to solve the problem.
Although agencies have been ordered to reunite the close to 3,000 children ages five and older with their families by July 26, 2018, there is not great confidence it will happen. It is only two weeks away, what will become of the children who aren’t united by the deadline?
If Congress cannot pass a law on something so universal as re-unifying innocent children with their parents, what does this predict for the effective governance of the United States? Most other decisions and attempts to pass law contain deeper political divisions between the parties. Should we expect political stalemate? No meaningful passage of law? In a stalemate we all lose. Worth thinking about.
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