Republican Anti-Immigration Policies Continue to Backfire
Because of Title 42, migrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are released at the Mexico border without being processed, enabling many to attempt to cross again
As we already know, politicians who are driven by hate often enact policies that don’t make sense and routinely backfire. None more comical than Texas Governor Greg Abbott thinking he was being slick by sending people to DC in buses. It doesn’t take rocket science to determine that the East Coast is the final destination for many migrants. And when some took Abbott up on his offer of a free ride, a broad coalition of people let out a chuckle heard around the world.
The migrants arriving in DC laughed about it too.
Also comical but maybe not as funny was Abbott turning to crowdfunding via the public to help pay for the buses because he’s spent billions for a display at the border. In yet another absolute failure of Republican leadership, Abbott was thanked by the migrants he hates and immigration advocates for the free ride, food, hot showers, and clean clothes. Despite the animus behind his policy, it’s better than being thrown out on the street at a bus stop in an unknown city.
Abbott and his cronies have systematically defunded schools and hospitals in order to fund his extremist political posturing using the border as a prop. Many Texans, however, have responded negatively to his over-the-top spending. Tens of thousands of Texas State Troopers and Texas State guardsmen have been deployed to the border region having no discernable impact.
Abbott’s plan was to coerce asylum-seekers onto private property and charge them criminally with trespassing. This part backfired because instead of being immediately thrown out of the country under Title 42, migrants charged with a crime stay in the US until their cases are settled and their time served at the taxpayers' expense.
Title 42 is riddled with its own comedy of errors. One of the biggest is that migrants are often released right at the US-Mexico border allowing them to commit further unauthorized entries into the US. The inhumanity at the border only forces asylum-seekers to seek alternate methods of entry into the country. It exposes them to gangs and cartels creating chaos for migrants.
An environment that Republicans have previously only lied about.Â
All the things conservatives scream about using typical Klan-like talking points about immigrants are becoming very real issues at the border. Things that didn’t exist before, now do. By creating chaos they can justify more spending and further restrict non-white migrants' access to the US.
Creating an unsustainable environment allows political extremists to push for dismantling the broken-by-design immigration system instead of reforming it and making it more efficient.
And that’s the point.
Arturo is a first-generation Cuban American navigating the intersection of politics and race and publisher of The Antagonist Magazine. You can find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.