The border is not broken, Washington, D.C. is: Marisa Limón Garza

Let’s be clear. The border is not broken. 1.5 million workers, families, and children cross the southern border every day to shop, to work, to go to school, and we think nothing of it. In fact our prosperity and our wellbeing as a country depends on it. The idea that 5,000 or even 10,000 people might overwhelm us trivializes both what our government is capable of and our nation’s capacity to welcome. Those of us living at the border know this.

It is clear that what is broken is in Washington D.C., where administration officials and members of Congress are detached not only from reality on the ground, but are detached from the vision and courage necessary to put in place real solutions.

It is enraging to see President Joe Biden break his promises time after time to restore a humane and orderly asylum and immigration system, and instead retreat to embrace tired, failed, enforcement-first approaches to immigration. Policies excluding people or curtailing access to due process and legal pathways are documented failures. Every month Title 42 was in effect, more people crossed the southern border without authorization than the month before; it was not a deterrent then and imitations will not be a deterrent in the future. Texas has strewn miles of razor wire and sent thousands of police to the border, and yet migrants still cross in places like Eagle Pass, undeterred by our governor’s xenophobic preening and white supremacist posturing.

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One’s commitment to their children is a powerful force that drives parents and children to seek a better life in the U.S. No wall we might build will ever be stronger than this force of love and hope. Here in the Borderland we believe in supporting families, and keeping them together, not turning our backs on them or tearing them apart. And day in and day out we stand ready to do the work of welcome − the only thing that actually works.

We call on Congress and the Biden administration to reverse course and turn away from the political games that drive us toward these reckless immigration proposals. We must have common-sense immigration laws that strengthen our country by bolstering legal pathways, respecting people’s rights, and honoring shared values.

Marisa Limón Garza is the executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.