Letters

House Republican antipathy to an immigration reform bill passed by the U.S. Senate on a bipartisan basis, and supported by the president of the United States, resulted in a missed opportunity to enhance border security.

Just look at these provisions: 700 miles of additional border fencing; deploying 38,405 Border Patrol agents; implementing an E-Verify system; enhancing border surveillance; adding $40 billion to border security. Such were some of the provisions of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.

That border security act was approved by a 68-32 vote in the U.S. Senate — in 2013. It was killed in the House of Representatives by Republican representatives in the same year.

This year, the U.S. Senate, again on a bipartisan basis, negotiated the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, and would have added $114 billion for border security. The proposal died because of entrenched Republican opposition.

U.S. Senator James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), the chief Republican negotiator, and the 2019 Award for Conservative Excellence recipient, admonished his Republican colleagues for their failure to act on the bill: “Some people have said it would mean 5,000 people coming into the country every day. That is absurd and untrue. The emergency authority is not designed to let 5,000 people in — it is designed to close the border and turn 5,000 people around.”

Factcheck.org describes how Republicans misrepresented the bill: Search the site for “Unraveling Misinformation About Bipartisan Immigration Bill.”

It should be clear by now that congressional Republicans are uninterested in border security or a rational immigration system. They are interested in inflaming emotions for political gain. They cower in fear of making good public policy decisions, while Donald Trump misinforms a Republican base with overheated rhetoric about the push and pull of migration dynamics.

Reminding Americans of our sordid eugenicist past, Donald Trump poured on the hate by denouncing immigrants for “poisoning the blood of our country.”

In contrast, President Joe Biden spoke rationally in his State of the Union Address about both strengthening border security and keeping the ideal of America as a nation of immigrants intact.

Mike Anthony

Westhampton

Anthony is a former chair of the Southampton Town Democratic Committee — Ed.