Every now and again, both during and after his two-term presidency, Bill Clinton espoused sound immigration thoughts that focused on the nation’s best interests.
Most recently, Clinton, without naming names, took direct aim at President Joe Biden’ss open border fiasco.
On a CNN podcast, and in response to a question about economic migrants who are, in the host’s description, “gaming” the asylum system, Clinton replied that “there’s a limit” at which point open borders will cause “severe disruption.”
He added that the established immigration protocols, presumably a reference to the traditional agencies that assist incoming immigrants, function on the assumption that border conditions would “be more normal.”
“Severe disruption” may be the kindest way to describe the chaos in the Rio Grande Valley and other entry points along the southern border. And severely disrupted is an understatement to define the conditions in sanctuary cities New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., where the mayors are grappling unsuccessfully to accommodate the migrants sent north by Govs. Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul summoned the National Guard to help New York Mayor Eric Adams with his plan, still in flux, to relocate the migrants to a Randall Island tent city.
Adams, who declared the incoming migrants’ need for assistance “a humanitarian crisis,” pleaded to no avail with Biden for a minimum $500 million emergency aid infusion. Having no money to deal with incoming migrants is as disruptive, to use Clinton’s word, as conditions get.
Clinton has long been aware of over-immigration’s effect on U.S. citizens.
In Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union address, given after Republicans picked up eight Senate seats and a net 54 seats in the House of Representatives during a GOP midterm rout to win congressional control for the first time in four decades, he spoke about the anxiety Americans experience during periods of unchecked immigration.
He listed many dangers that illegal immigration presents to Americans that included illegal hiring, the subsequent U.S. job losses and providing costly social services.
His word-for-word conclusion: “It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”
During his State of the Union speech, Clinton mentioned former Rep. Barbara Jordan, D-Texas, who chaired the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. The commission’s goal was to establish “credible, coherent immigrant and immigration policy.”
Jordan endorsed significant legal immigration reductions with an emphasis on high-skilled admissions, fewer refugees, more deportations and a chain migration overhaul that would limit sponsorship to nuclear family members.
She distilled her immigration vision in a sentence: “Those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.”
However, Jordan died just months after releasing her report, after which a civil rights, Hispanic advocacy coalition opposed to her immigration goals strong-armed Clinton into backing away. Had Jordan lived, her presence would have kept Clinton committed to her common-sense immigration reform rules.
Should the Republicans manage to recapture Congress next month, no sure thing, the results won’t spawn a 1995-style immigration awareness in Biden similar to Clinton’s.
As vice president, Biden continuously hailed “constant” and “unrelenting” immigration stream “in large numbers” as America’s source of strength.
Given the red carpet welcome he has extended to millions of illegal immigrants and got-aways, complete with, in many cases, parole and work authorization, a presidential immigration awakening is highly improbable.
— Joe Guzzardi is a nationally syndicated columnist writing about immigration and related social issues. A California native who now lives in Pittsburgh, he’s a Progressives for Immigration Reform analyst who can be reached at jguzzardi@pfirdc.org. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.