Democrats are growing concerned over the White House’s plans to overhaul the Trump administration’s policies on immigration.
Politico reported that Democrats in states where immigration is a key issue fear that President Joe Biden is walking into a political buzzsaw by moving too quickly to change former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Some say the party’s messaging and policy proposals are too much, too soon.
“The way we’re doing it right now is catastrophic and is a recipe for disaster in the middle of a pandemic,” said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas.
“Our party should be concerned. If we go off the rails, it’s going to be bad for us,” Gonzalez said. “Biden is going to be dealing with a minority in Congress if he continues down some of these paths.”
The overhaul would offer an eight-year pathway to citizenship to the estimated 11 million people in the U.S. without legal status.
Details of the immigration plan were expected on Thursday. But it is anticipated that they would also reflect the reforms Biden spelled out on his first day in office. Those include an increase in visas and funding to process asylum applications.
And Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, maintained that he's been voicing concerns since before Election Day that quickly reversing Trump’s policies would result in an increased number of migrants at the border, according to Politico.
“I said: ‘Hey, we don’t want the wall but when it comes to the other issues we gotta be careful that we don't give the impression that we have open borders’ because otherwise the numbers are going to start going up," he said. "And surely enough, we’re starting to see numbers go up."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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