U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut has returned from a bipartisan trip to the southern border during a renewed focus on immigration.
Murphy, a Democrat, joined seven other Senators as part of a delegation headed by Republican John Cornyn of Texas and the newly independent Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. The Senators visited El Paso, Texas and Yuma, Arizona, soon after President Joe Biden made a similar visit en route to a summit with the leaders of Mexico and Canada in Mexico City.
Hoping to limit the influx of migrants at the border, Biden has announced a new policy to create more pathways to legal immigration while also requiring migrants to stay in their home nations while their cases are decided.
Murphy says Biden is on the right track.
“It's becoming hard to manage this number of people from this diverse set of places. And so we have got to set up a better, more orderly system. I think President Biden in the new plan that he put forward last week is painting a picture for what that new system should look like,” he said. “People should be able to apply for asylum in the United States. I'm a big believer in America's asylum program refugee program. But it's got to be through a planned orderly process.”
With thousands of migrants arriving at the southern border every week, calls for comprehensive immigration reform are growing louder in Washington.
Murphy says migrants are now arriving from around the world, not just Latin America.
“What we learned is that virtually everybody that's crossing the border is doing so to simply seek a better life in the United States. Yes, there are drug traffickers. Yes, there are a handful of dangerous people. But almost everyone that is coming to the United States is coming here because they want to work. They're coming here because they're fleeing violence or persecution. Second thing we learned is that the profile of the individuals or families that are crossing the border is fundamentally different today than it was five or 10 years ago.”
Murphy chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. He says as with recent landmark gun control legislation, there may be a bipartisan immigration bill brewing in the Senate.
“And our belief is that we can do the same thing on the issue of immigration,” he said.
Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Murphy was asked about the political feasibility of an immigration deal after Republicans took control of the House.
“This issue of immigration is hard. But we can find common ground. We found it on the issue of guns. In the end, we were able to get 15 Republican votes in the Senate, 15 Republican votes in the House. That was enough to pass the bill in 2022, that's enough to pass an immigration reform bill in 2023,” he said. “So my hope is that this group in the Senate will be able to put together a proposal that'll sort of show the way in which you sort of marry together compassionate but rules-based immigration reform, and that maybe Congressman McCarthy will be interested in taking a look at it in order to help shed the image that America has right now of the House Republican majority is, you know, a complete dumpster fire.”
New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand spoke with WAMC this week. She agrees with Murphy’s conclusions.
“I fully support enhanced and much more investment in border security,” she said. “I think we have to stop the flow of illegal immigration. But one of the best ways to do that is to right-size immigration and create more visas for legal immigration and to encourage people who are seeking asylum to apply from the countries of origin — not taking these dangerous treks across many countries.”
Murphy said although Connecticut is far from the border, the issue affects every state.
