There is no division in the Democratic party on the asylum crisis
by digby
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| I don’t know about you but I wouldn’t want to drink out of those sinks either. Even if the toilets are clean, which I’m sure they are not, it’s gross. |
Greg Sargent with another fine piece in today’s Washington Post. He points out that the emerging narrative about the horrific border crisis is characterized as “the left” vs the Trump administration when the mainstream of America is horrified by what’s happening down there. He suggests that the problem is that the party hasn’t come together on an issue that actually unites all of it:
Democrats can mount an aggressive response to these horrifying revelations that accomplishes two things: improves oversight over them while also demonstrating that tackling these problems is a partywide concern shared by most mainstream Democrats, and that a consensus set of mainstream Democratic Party solutions to them is developing.
The new revelations are coming to light, thanks to a visit that Democratic House members, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) paid to border stations on Monday.
These members reported scenes that they described as “appalling and disgusting” and indicative of a “human rights crisis.” Ocasio-Cortez and another member reported that migrants say they’ve been told to drink from toilets, while other migrants claimed to be going without showers.
Meanwhile, ProPublica reports that a Facebook group of U.S. Border Patrol agents showcased discussion of profane jokes about migrant deaths and even sexual vulgarities involving Ocasio-Cortez.
Officials at Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the overcrowded border stations — where asylum-seeking families and children are first held — adamantly deny the more lurid allegations. The agency has vowed a probe of the Facebook postings.
But concerns are mounting. Human Rights Watch just issued a reportfinding that Trump’s effort to force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, pending processing, will put many in serious danger.
Yes, it’s true: Trump’s treatment of migrants exercising their legal right to apply for asylum is attracting the scrutiny of international human rights monitors.
Where are the Democrats?
Right now, Democrats are consumed in a searing internal debate over whether some immigration positions of some presidential candidates are pulling the party too far left. These include things such as “decriminalizing migration” by downgrading the seriousness of illegal border crossing.
Some are warning that Democrats are veering away from the strategy that enabled them to win the House by triumphing in very tough districts, including ones carried by Trump.
My view is that those positions are mostly half-baked and tangential to the serious dilemmas we face on immigration (see this Juliette Kayyem explainer on why “decriminalizing migration” is largely a distraction). But it’s reasonable to debate whether such positions put the party at risk in the general election, as Matthew Yglesias says. This is one thing primaries are for.
But the debate over the asylum crisis in particular offers an opening to unite the party around positions that simply can’t be described as extreme or politically dangerous, on an issue that is commanding intense public attention right now. Why not grab this opportunity?.
Harsh treatment of small kids is an outrage that transcends all differences among Democrats. (It should transcend all difference among Americans but it doesn’t.) Democrats shouldn’t shy away from that. There may just be some decent Republicans left out there.
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