Senate Hearing on Mass Deportations Was a Circus [VIDEOS]
Republicans continued to villainize immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean while being quiet about many other immigration issues
On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on mass deportations that was nothing short of a chaotic mess and Republican grandstanding built around the idea that most Latin American and Caribbean Island immigrants in the U.S. are in the country illegally. While the focus was on immigrants who commit crimes, for Republicans, what was apparent was that any migrant who crossed the southern border to seek asylum was a criminal by default.
Blanket assertions and cherry-picking a few crimes committed by migrants are what drive policy ideas like mass deportations. Misinformation about the Biden administration bypassing existing laws to allow migrants to enter the country was also a key tenet of the Republican narrative. The reality is that the Biden administration’s enforcement policies repatriated more than 3.5 million migrants and made claiming asylum more difficult than any other president in recent history.
During opening statements, the Policy Director of the American Immigration Council (AIC), Aaron Reichlin-Melnick brought up many facts that Republicans intentionally get wrong. He discussed how crime among migrants is low and that most migrants have been in the U.S. for 15 to 25 years or more, have not committed crimes, pay taxes into programs they do not benefit from, and have no path to citizenship. Reichlin-Melnick then highlighted the economic costs, loss of GDP, and increased food/housing costs that will result from mass deportations. He also addressed the human costs of mass deportations while advocating for immigration reform.
That didn’t stop Republicans from using their talking points designed to confuse and misinform those who know little about the immigration process. Like many in the Republican base, they couldn’t even agree on how many migrants came to the U.S. under Biden. At one point, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) used the inflated number of 8 million migrants, while shortly after, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested it was 12 million.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) blamed the high numbers at the border on President Joe Biden as if former president Donald Trump didn't create the chaotic situation to begin with. Like every other Republican, Cornyn ignored how Republicans failed to pass the so-called Bipartisan Border Bill at Trump’s behest. Cornyn also claimed that Biden canceled agreements with Mexico and made no mention of Biden expanding those agreements leading to fewer migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Cornyn, like his cohorts, then claimed Biden refused to enforce the law but never noted how the current administration’s enforcement of the law allowed for millions of repatriations and how Biden made it more difficult to claim asylum through executive orders. Cornyn also referred to migrants released from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as “illegals” despite their release suggesting that they are here legally pending due process under the law.
A little later, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) talked to Art Arthur from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designated hate group that promotes racist writers who push disinformation about immigration. Kennedy then targeted retired U.S. Army Major General Randy Manner for comments he made on cable news calling Trump a fascist and suggesting he wanted open borders. Maj. Gen. Manner clapped back just before Kennedy turned his attention to Reichlin-Melnick about social media posts, took them out of context, and made absurd claims about him. Reichlin-Melnick wasn’t having it.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) focused on the few crimes by migrants they could bring up. She also mentioned human trafficking, sex trafficking, and the need to deport “criminal aliens” while subtly referring to all migrants as such. Blackburn spent much of her time focusing on her “Clear Act” which unconstitutionally and dangerously blurs the line between federal law enforcement and state and local law enforcement.
Blackburn then called on Art Arthur from CIS as she seemingly knew he would agree with her about local and state law enforcement doing federal law enforcement duties. However, when she targeted Reichlin-Melnick about his tweets, that did not go so well. He fact-checked her, which points out how little she knows of what she's talking about.
While Republicans claimed that migrants released from CBP/ICE custody are “illegals” when they are not, they also continued to push the lie about hundreds of thousands of criminal immigrants on our streets – the narrative has been debunked countless times since the lie started two months ago based on a misconstrued Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report. The report was released by a former ICE official and picked up by far-right media.
One of the more rational discussions at the hearing came from Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI). She talked about various immigration reform bills going back to 2013 that failed because of Republican stonewalling. Hirono also called out Republicans for pointing fingers at the Biden administration and looked back upon Trump’s family separation policy. She then asked Reichlin-Melnick about exorbitant mass deportation costs.
What the hearing shows the world is just how Republicans have not only been misinforming the public about immigration but how they’ve also managed to get much of the U.S. to fall in line behind them. This, despite their motivations being steeped in obvious racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism – as has been expressed by many conservatives in Congress and across the country. They highlighted what the country is in for in the coming years. Their rhetoric exposed just how hateful they’re being about it all as more people are buying into it.
Notably, they did not mention any other issues with the immigration system, such as the green card backlog, which affects 1.8 million people on work visas, or how immigrants who have been in the country for decades and have not committed any crimes and pay their taxes have no path to citizenship. Beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), also known as Dreamers, were only mentioned a few times with no solutions or ideas offered.
It was more grandstanding and not much else from Republicans.
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I am very much disheartened by the fact that alternative realities seem to be sipping all the way to the congress (if not starting from there). It's quite insane to hear senators bend reality and mischaracterize factual events that way. How can we even hope that citizens remain clear on what happened, what happens, and what will happen if we are not consistently analyzing reality without deforming it?? I am still puzzled by the fact that this is allowed.
Thanks for sharing this. It disgusts me how these uneducated senators grab an issue that they don’t understand and proceed to grab a microphone to spew their ignorance.