Kamala Harris Calls for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

A recent story in the New York Times quoted an ad by Kamala Harris’ campaign that addresses immigration. In it, she talks about the need for “comprehensive reform,” which is noteworthy. It is the kind of language that those concerned about being demonized as soft on immigration have avoided, but it is also what we need.

As we have written, our immigration system has become a mess because change has evolved through an endless series of tinkers, not through a deliberate action with a clear set of principles to guide the reform so that it works harmoniously. Legislative inaction meant that tweaks at the regulatory level and executive actions have been the only way to make the system more responsive to the immigration challenges we face, and neither is the best way to bring about coherent, dependable change.

This position comes as Harris tries to reflect a consensus position on immigration, calling for increased security at the southern border to deal with unauthorized border crossings and creating paths to citizenship for those who have been in the U.S. for a long time and have established themselves and their families as parts of communities.

It’s a position Democrats have tried to stake out for years. The story’s author, Michael Gold, writes, “Since the Obama years, Democrats had sought to fuse efforts to increase border security with calls to establish permanent paths to legal residency and citizenship for the roughly 10 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, many of whom have lived in the country for years, holding jobs, paying taxes and starting families.”

While it’s good to see Harris embracing comprehensive immigration reform, nothing will happen without changes in the Senate. President Biden talked a good immigration game when elected, but his proposals ran into a buzzsaw in the Senate. His big plans met the same fate as other grand immigration changes since 1986, and he too had to settle for what he could get piecemeal.

Still, we always hope for the best and applaud all signs of possible progress. If, like us, you want to see comprehensive immigration reform, let your elected representatives know. When they realize that it’s not a political third rail and that support for immigration reform can be good politics, they’ll be less resistant to the kind of change we all know needs to happen.