Entering the third week of a federal government shutdown, it’s easy to see why Americans are disgusted with politicians. The president and Democratic congressional leaders are in a standoff over a border wall, so they’re shutting down national parks, withholding paychecks for the Coast Guard, and screwing up people’s home loans.
To everyone not infected by partisan politics, the situation is ludicrous. There’s a solution at hand, if politicians grow up, stop worrying about which side is “winning” the political fight (spoiler alert: they’re both losing), and deliver results.
Congressional Democrats and others who oppose a border wall have pushed to treat fairly the estimated 1.8 million non-legal residents (“Dreamers”) who were brought to the U.S. as children. These Dreamers have spent virtually their entire lives here, know no other country as their own, yet remain in legal limbo while Congress dithers. Last year, then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi set the record for the longest speech in U.S. House history on the need to provide a solution for Dreamers. She was right.
Meanwhile, supporters of a wall cite the pressing need for more security on our borders. They’re right, too. There is nothing outrageous about wanting to know who is coming and going through our borders and, like every other sovereign nation, deciding who is eligible to enter. Ninety percent of the heroin that’s responsible for killing 300 Americans a week comes across the southern border. Strengthening the physical border would significantly contribute toward preventing that scourge. And if we want to keep from creating another round of Dreamers living in the legal shadows, we have to secure the entry points into the United States.
