Like many people in our country, I watch the differing coverage of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border and want to make sense of it all. And, if you’re like me (and more than 80 percent of Americans), you know that our current border situation is intrinsically connected to the need to update our immigration system. We need Congress to work together and enact solutions.
So, what is the current situation at the border? The Title 42 public health order, the emergency policy that was put into place at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, expired on May 11. Under that failed policy, we faced increasing dysfunction at the border and record-high border encounters, as we overrode longstanding and established legal protections for those fleeing harm.
The expiration of Title 42 was expected to be accompanied by a surge of migrants. Instead, the number of migrant encounters has dropped.
Along with administration messaging that the border is not open and increased enforcement by Mexican authorities, the Biden administration has touted its new “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule as having reduced border encounters. Under the rule, migrants who travel through a third country on their way to the U.S.-Mexico border face a presumption of asylum ineligibility that can be overcome only by meeting a handful of hard-to-meet exceptions.
While the expected surge in border encounters has not yet materialized, the new rule, which faces legal challenges, raises concerns. One exception to the rule, using the CBP One app to preschedule an appointment with immigration officials, is riddled with flaws. The limited number of appointments available along with various deficiencies with the app have posed significant challenges for many migrants.
Another key exception requires those passing through a third country en route to the U.S. to apply for asylum and receive a denial in that country first. This represents a formidable hurdle, as many of the countries migrants may pass through on their way to the U.S. are unstable and unsafe, with their own challenges to processing asylum-seekers.
Beyond messaging and enforcement policies, another important factor is the remarkable work of border communities who have found ways to adapt amid a turbulent time for border policy. Firsthand accounts from these communities contradict fear-based narratives.
Take Brownsville, Texas, as an example. Weeks ago, a tragic vehicle crash left eight individuals dead outside of a migrant shelter. Now, Brownsville — a city that borders Mexico along the Rio Grande River — was expected to be one of the first places affected by increased migrant arrivals after Title 42’s termination.
“They are making it seem worse than it is,” one Brownsville resident told NPR. “It’s just calm. [The migrants] are just trying to get somewhere.”
Said another: “I think where we get dismayed is when we hear the state or national conversation or the way [Texas] Gov. [Greg] Abbott — or at times even President Biden — talks about the border. It just doesn’t ever feel like they are talking to us.”
One local leader in the area, Cindy Andrade Johnson of La Posada Providencia, has long welcomed migrants and went through the tragedy in late April in which a driver drove into a group of migrants. “Migrants have long been welcome in our community,” she told me. “They seek a safer life and a chance to give back and contribute in the U.S. We have seen that we are all better off when we allow them to seek refuge and join our community.”
Americans don’t need false narratives or fearmongering. We need permanent solutions. Our polling shows that four in five Americans want our leaders in Congress, regardless of party, to work together to pass immigration reforms. A bill proposed in the House of Representatives this month is a good start. The Dignity Act, introduced by Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.), and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), aims to boost border security, rework the asylum system, create a way forward for Dreamers and immigrants who lack authorization, and modernize employment-based immigration, among other provisions.
In the end, we need both security and compassion. That is not something that temporary fixes to border policy can provide. Instead, we need permanent solutions from the halls of Congress.
Jennie Murray is president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum.