[1]U.S. Senator Chris Murphy
Two weeks ago, I spent two days in Texas and Arizona, joining a group of Republican and Democratic Senators to review conditions at our nation’s southern border. I want to share with you a behind-the-scenes account of this brief trip, especially because the discussions our group had during the trip could form the foundation of an important bipartisan breakthrough on the fraught issue of immigration policy.
Photo: At the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma, Arizona.
First, a note on why I made this trip. On the Appropriations Committee, which writes the nation’s annual spending bills, I am the Chairman of the subcommittee that devises the budget for the entire Department of Homeland Security. This includes all the facets of our nation’s border security and immigration system. So it’s just good form to see firsthand the programs and personnel our budget funds. But, I chose to go on this particular trip because I am sick and tired of the topic of immigration being seen as a crude political cudgel — a perpetually unsolvable problem that makes our economy and our democracy weaker. Our immigration laws are embarrassingly outdated; the last major update was written when I was in middle school. It’s way past time for Members of Congress to stop worrying about the political fallout on the right and left from an immigration compromise and catch up our laws to reality.
Maybe a few years ago, I wouldn’t be a likely Senator to help broker this compromise. But over the last year, I have found myself at the center of some of the most significant bipartisan breakthroughs in the Senate — the bipartisan gun safety bill and the Electoral Count Reform Act — and many of the same Senators with whom I worked on those bills are eager to be at the table on immigration reform. So on Monday morning, I set off for El Paso, Texas to rendezvous with two other Democratic Senators — Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Chris Coons of Delaware — one Independent Senator — Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — and four Republican Senators — John Cornyn of Texas, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, James Lankford of Oklahoma, and Jerry Moran of Kansas — for two days of meetings and tours. Not coincidentally, all four members who wrote the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act were part of this delegation. Sinema, Cornyn, Tillis, and l labored nonstop for a month to produce the most significant gun safety bill in three decades. We enjoyed working together and were eager to find a new and equally challenging collaboration.
America’s greatness is rooted in our willingness to bring people from all over the world, many fleeing persecution or economic devastation, to become part of the American experiment. Many Americans are here because they are, or an ancestor was, an immigrant. But, I think today that many people forget that at one time, for some immigrants, we had near open borders. When my Irish family members sailed here in the mid-1800s, there were no visa or refugee programs. They didn’t seek permission before setting off to America. They were fleeing starvation and poverty, just like those coming to our southern border today, and their journey was, for all intents and purposes, just as arduous. Our ability to go from a sleepy British colony to the world’s preeminent superpower in a short two centuries is a result of the genius of our founding ideals and the scourge of slavery, but also our ability to grow quickly through migration.
Click here to continue reading the full behind-the-scenes account.
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