Montage: Media, Dems blame Republicans for lack of meaningful immigration reform
Figures on CNN, ABC and MSNBC blamed Republicans stonewalling 'immigration reform' for continued border security issues.
Left-leaning media figures on CNN and ABC, as well as Democratic politicians, are reigniting their claim that Republicans are to blame for the border crisis occurring under the Biden administration.
Following Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ move to send migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, members of the media and the Democratic Party laid out several recurring arguments in their analysis of the current issues curtailing substantial immigration reform, which hasn’t occurred since the Reagan administration in 1986.
A Wednesday editorial from the Los Angeles Times said DeSantis and Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent "callousness" in sending migrants to Democratic strongholds across the U.S only further destabilizes a dysfunctional immigration system, which they claimed is marred by political stonewalling, not poor border security.
"There is no question that there is a crisis at the border. Apprehensions by U.S. Border Patrol are on the rise, increasing more than 22% from July to August," the LA Times board wrote. "But it is a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by political posturing, not one caused by an uncontrolled border. It’s an emergency that has been created by the lack of goodwill by politicians more interested in their own political viability than the stability of the country and fueled by decades of failure by Congress to tackle comprehensive immigration reform."
GROUP OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN UNDERSCORES 'HUMANITARIAN' BORDER CRISIS 'IGNORED' BY BIDEN, DEMOCRATS
Groups of migrants wait outside the Migrant Resource Center to receive food from the San Antonio Catholic Charities on Sept. 19, 2022 in San Antonio, Texas. The City of San Antonio Migrant Resource Center is the place of origin of the two planeloads of mostly Venezuelan migrants who were sent via Florida to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)
A day earlier, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blamed the broken immigration system on the Trump administration, a position that Jean-Pierre and other members of the Biden White House have often taken.
"The system is broken, and we know that," Jean-Pierre said on MSNBC. "It was decimated by the last administration, and what we’re trying to do is fix something that has decades and decades of deterioration."
CNN and ABC also aired segments in which employees and guests often skirted away from laying the blame squarely on the Biden administration, choosing instead to point fingers at the Republican Party for a lack of congressional action on immigration.
During a panel discussion on the topic, left-wing CNN host Jim Acosta interjected as CNN political commentator Alice Stewart was discussing the massive number of migrants that have come into the U.S. throughout Biden’s tenure. She said the governors were correct to make sure this issue was an "American problem" and allow other states to help carry the burden.
"But, the border, Alice, was not secure during the Trump administration. They separated children from their mothers during the Trump administration as a deterrent because the border was not secure at that point. Why weren’t DeSantis and Abbott putting little kids on buses then?" Acosta retorted.
Migrants attempting to cross in to the U.S. from Mexico are detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the border in San Luis, Arizona, on Aug. 20, 2022. (Nick Ut/Getty Images)
CNN political commentator Maria Cardona was far more critical of Republicans as well.
In one segment, Cardona claimed Democrats are the ones pushing immigration reform while Republicans have always "shut the door" on it. She also pushed back on members of the GOP who have drawn an equivalency to Republican governors sending migrants to other states and the Biden administration orchestrating late-night flights to send migrants throughout the country.
"Republicans love to talk about the Biden administration doing this in the cover of night. You know what they were doing, Alice, in the cover of night? They were reuniting the families that were separated — brutally separated under the Trump administration. This, by the way, Jim, is no better. This is akin to that kind of family separation," Cardona said.
During a separate segment, Cardona called it "laughable" that Republicans would claim the Biden administration has failed to secure the border and claimed that Democrats have "always" put forward legislation and solutions for comprehensive immigration reform.
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT BLAMES REPUBLICANS FOR MAKING BORDER CRISIS WORSE
CNN's Jake Tapper speaks onstage during the WarnerMedia Upfront 2019 show at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City on May 15, 2019. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for WarnerMedia)
On Sept. 15, CNN’s "The Lead" host Jake Tapper gave credit to former President George W. Bush for attempting to pass immigration reform, but claimed past Republican politicians eventually turned away from the idea because they feared their base.
"I’ve seen two U.S. presidents, President Bush, also a former Texas governor, and President Obama try to get immigration reform passed, and Bush really tried very, very hard — to his credit," Tapper said. "And the problem always at the end of the day came down to conservative House Republicans refusing to go along with any compromise because they were afraid of their Republican base."
The recent actions of DeSantis and Abbott also sparked debate on Sunday morning’s "Powerhouse Roundtable" on ABC’s "This Week." Marc Short, the former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, sat on the panel with former North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.
Heitkamp was quick to point out that the migrant crisis involving Venezuelans started under the Trump administration, and was not solely the fault of the current White House. Host Jonathan Karl then turned his attention to Short and asked if he thought it was a good idea for DeSantis and Abbott to drop busloads of migrants, including a small child, onto a busy street late at night.
"It wasn’t happening under the previous administration because the previous administration actually secured the border — let’s be honest," Short said; Heitkamp disagreed.
Liberal media outlets have criticized Republican governors for sending migrants to blue states since early July.
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In late August, The New York Times described the influx of migrants into New York City and Washington, D.C., with the headline, "G.O.P. Governors Cause Havoc by Busing Migrants to East Coast."
One day earlier, Vanity Fair also suggested that the Republican governors "successfully created a migrant crisis" in the northern states.
On July 26, the Washington Post editorial board called out Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser for failing to properly handle the illegal immigration crisis in her own city. However, the piece did not reference Biden’s border policies as a factor and similarly called Abbott and GOP Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s actions a "political stunt."
Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.
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