What does the designation of a national monument have to do with reforming our broken immigration system?
If you answered absolutely nothing, you are correct.
But these are hyper-partisan times – politicians and policy makers stop at nothing for a quick reward. Taking political cheap shots at the expense of finding workable solutions has become par for the course, and politics is often more about winning a news cycle than solving a problem.
So when President Obama designated New Mexico’s Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks as a National Monument earlier this summer, it didn’t take long for detractors to pounce. On July 10th, the House Committee on Homeland Security’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Management Efficiency held a hearing entitled, “The Executive Proclamation Designating the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks a National Monument: Implications for Border Security.”
There’s only one problem: the implications for border security had already been determined, and the most credible voices on the subject had all determined those implications were nil.
At the time of the designation in May, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement: “This designation will in no way limit our ability to perform our important border security mission, and in fact provides important flexibility as we work to meet this ongoing priority.”
Sixty-eight retired U.S. military generals also weighed in on the designation, writing a letter to the president which said: “The designation of the new national monument has no bearing on our nation’s security. The portion of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near the U.S.-Mexico border—the Portillo Mountains—has not been a problem area for illegal border crossings, and will similarly not be one in the future.”
And a border sheriff from the area also said concerns about the Organ Mountains and border security don’t amount to much. In a statement upon learning of the monument designation, New Mexico’s Luna County Sheriff, Raymond Cobos, said in part: “I am satisfied that the President's action … will not hamper the ability of the Luna County Sheriff's Department to enforce applicable New Mexico statutes within the area covered by the proclamation. I am comfortable with the manner in which local law enforcement jurisdiction and authority is preserved.”
The fact is, no aspect of this national monument designation warrants the wasted time and taxpayer dollars for a Congressional hearing. Many people with experience and standing have said, quite plainly, that this designation will not impede border security. The real question is why House Republicans would rather add to the tensions around our broken immigration system than find a way to fix it.
For more than twenty months, Republicans have refused to be part of a solution. Now that there is a humanitarian crisis on our borders, their only goal is to further enflame the problem.
Meanwhile, thousands of kids from Central America wait in limbo, having risked life and limb to escape violence at home. They are just the latest victims of a broken system with a backlog measured in decades, not years, and a deportation rate of 1,100 people a day.
All of these people share two things in common: they all aspire to be our fellow countrymen, and they are all exploited as political pawns by a Republican Party that has no interest in welcoming them.
So here’s an idea for House Republicans: the next time they want to hold a hearing on the nexus of a national monument and immigration, they should focus on the Statue of Liberty. Maybe then they can find the time to read the words emblazoned on her plaque:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”