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Immigration Policy: Congress' Biggest Battle

With Congress coming back from their summer recess and beginning their session earlier this week, there are a few key issues that legislators will be discussing and trying to find solutions. One of the major problems facing the United States Congress is immigration at the United States-Mexican border. During the 2018 midterm elections, something a lot of potential candidates spoke during their campaign was what they would do to solve the immigration problem in the United States. With the 2020 democrat primary debates starting this year, there are a lot of potential democrat presidential candidates discussing their plan for the border and immigration. Lots of these potential candidates are or were part of the United States Congress during their careers. Throughout their careers, they were also dealing with immigration problems in the United States. In late 2018 and early 2019, the United States had the longest federal government shutdown in the history of this country, just because President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers couldn’t get funding for a wall along the southern border. In a poll done by Gallup in June 2019, 23% of Americans interviewed mention that immigration was the biggest problem facing the United States today. This is the highest percentage Gallup has ever measured for the immigration as an issue since it first began recording mentions of it back in 1993.


Americans look toward Congress to solve these types of problems. Since the early 20th century, Congress has been creating laws that limit the number of people who can get visas and who can become citizens. Back in April, when Congress was in session the House of Representatives of a majority of Democrats refused to pass new immigration laws. A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi stated that the Trumps Administrations ideas are “an anti-immigrant wish list that does nothing to keep our country safer and erodes our values as a nation of immigrants,” (Davis, 2019). In the same article by NPR, it mentioned that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stated: “I think it's way past time, on both sides, that we sit down together and see what we could agree to improve the situation, not only border security but also the asylum laws…” (Davis, 2019). It seems that each side in Congress has its own immigration agenda, yet each side will not discuss with the other until they feel like they will get their way. 

In 2020, there isn’t just a presidential campaign, but all of the seats in the House are up for reelection as well as one-third of the seats in the Senate. These candidates will also be focusing part of their campaign on what their policy ideas are for immigration in the United States. In a section in the Political Research Quarterly, written by political scientist Tyler Reny, he examines how different political affiliations affect how a candidate discusses immigration. In his research, Reny found that throughout 2010, 2012, and 2014 elections, candidates that were from the Republican party were more likely to have anti-immigration policies, while candidates that were democrats were more likely to have a pro-immigration stance, (Reny, 738). Yet, if there are more Latinxs in a district, the Republican candidate will more likely not mention immigration in their campaign to help their campaign. Reny even uses the example of the 2014 Colorado senate race where Senator Cory Garnder unseated Democrat incumbent Senator Mark Udall. “Republican US Senate candidate Cory Gardner ran an uphill battle against Democratic incumbent Senator Mark Udall in Colorado, a state with over one million Latinos. Immigration appeals were conspicuously absent from Gardner’s campaign,” (Reny, 737). Gardner didn’t mention immigration much throughout his campaign because it could have negatively affected his campaign and even cost him by not winning the race. In 2020, Gardner is up for reelection, there is already lots of discussion about this upcoming race, and how Garnder will campaign with different immigration policies. Republican candidates run a cost-benefit- analysis to figure out if stating an anti-immigration agenda will cost them the election. In majority-white districts, Republican candidates are more likely to have the anti-immigration platform then-Republican candidates that are part of a district or state with more Latinx citizens. 

Every Congressman wants to win elections, while they are in office they are trying to decide what policies they should or shouldn’t support, immigration policies aren’t any different. With immigration in the United States being a central problem in the minds of millions of Americans, this will greatly affect how campaigns are run in 2020 and who ends up winning the 469 seats that are up for reelection. 
Davis, Susan. "Despite Pressure From Trump, House Democrats See No Urgency To Pass A 
Border Bill." NPR. 17 Apr. 2019. NPR. 17 Sept. 2019 
ocrats-see-no-urgency-to-pass-a-border-bill>.
Reny, Tyler. “Demographic Change, Latino Countermobilization, and the Politics of Immigration 

in US Senate Campaigns.” Political Research Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 4, Dec. 2017, pp. 735–748, doi:10.1177/1065912917713155.

Comments

  1. Bridget MurphySeptember 20, 2019 at 2:44 PM

    I agree with you that when it comes to immigration, it seems from the public’s point of view that compromise is not the U.S. Congress’ strength. I really like how you applied immigration to Colorado and Cory Gardner’s re-election situation. I find it interesting that a GOP candidate won’t mention immigration in their re-election campaign if there is a higher Latinx population in their district/state. For class last semester I helped write a policy paper on immigration in the UK and many polls indicated that right before the Brexit referendum, immigration worries skyrocketed. The short time leading up to June 23, 2016, the topic of immigration far surpassed the leading issues at the time, including the economy, NHS, and Britain’s relationship with the EU. This was in part due to anti-immigration rhetoric of the Vote Leave campaign. It’s interesting to watch the legislative bodies of both the US and the UK deal with immigration, and I especially like how you tied this subject to the 2020 election, as I think most people are unsure of how our election and Brexit will play out.

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