Will the Democrats Bungle Immigration—Again?
Again and again, the loudest and most extreme voices have set the immigration agenda for each party, to the detriment of the country.
Key points
- As a result, according to advocacy groups, the only way to stem the tide of illegal immigration is to address the underlying problems that push people to leave their countries, and to provide more legal pathways for these migrants to come to the United States.
- [ From the November 2026 issue: The babies left behind in America ] In reality, the United States’ inability to promptly remove those who lack a legal basis to remain in the country has been the driving force behind every major surge in illegal immigration since the Obama administration.
- As a result, more than 80 percent of people who claimed asylum at the border from 2014 to 2019 were released into the country, yet immigration judges ultimately granted asylum in less than a fifth of these cases.
Despite Trump’s concession in yesterday’s 60 Minutes interview that his administration’s handling of immigration was “too tough,” his elevation of the anti-immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller as his chief of staff suggests that this trend will continue.
Additional details
- At the time, advocacy groups persuaded senior officials and key members of Congress to focus on the root causes of illegal immigration—such as violence, corruption, and political instability in other countries—instead of tackling the incentives in the asylum system that encouraged migrants to come here.
- I have been working on border and immigration policy for more than 20 years, serving in senior roles at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security as well as Senate staff.
- Immigration advocates who deplore the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics have an obligation to propose realistic, constructive alternatives.
- I have seen, up close, surges in illegal immigration under both Democratic and Republican presidents.
- But the ACLU instead recycles arguments that immigration advocates have made for decades.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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