Dems Should Offer Immigration Reform for Wall Funding

The odd thing about the parts of government that shutdown over the stalemate on funding Trump’s wall is that many of affected agencies are involved in immigration and national security. The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA), those are the airport security screeners you see when you want to get on an airplane are required to work but aren’t getting paid. Most of those folks, like 80% of Americans, live paycheck to paycheck. Some federal employees are going to be unable to pay their rent and utilities very soon. Also on the list of federal employees working without pay are Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who handle foreign visitors and review cargoes arriving from overseas, and Border Patrol agents who are the very people securing our borders that Trump and his admirers are so concerned about. Airport security screeners have started calling in sick rather than work unpaid. Several days ago the American Federation of Government Employees sued the federal government alleging that it is violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by forcing employees deemed essential to work without pay.

800,000 federal employees are going without pay for more than two weeks, that doesn’t count federal contractors like the folks who clean offices or accounting or a number of other jobs that are farmed out to private businesses. That’s likely to add another 100,000 then there are the businesses who depend on the other federal agencies in order to operate. One of my larger customers runs hotels and gift shops at national parks and when the National Park Service is shutdown like it is now many of those parks close which means those hotels and stores close too, on top of that there are any number of businesses, including restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues which are outside the park but rely on park visitors.

In addition to the like likely one million Americans who are directly impacted by the shutdown there are secondary affects as those folks cut back spending which in turn affects sales at grocery stores and other retailers not to mention the landlords who lose rent payments. All this is happening when the overall economy is starting to destabilize as interest rates rise and consumer purchases of autos and homes slow down along with appliances and other big ticket items.

It’s important to all of us for this standoff to end quickly. Donald Trump has claimed he’s the consummate dealmaker since long before his ghost-written book “The Art of the Deal”. He repeatedly claimed he was a masterful negotiator during his campaign for president. Now, due to the crisis he created via the shutdown of numerous federal agencies, Democrats have a chance to find out if he’s really a dealmaker by offering to fund his wall if they get something they want.

I view this as an opportunity to think big since his ridiculous wall is, as he is fond of saying, huuuge. Since the wall is about immigration so why not demand comprehensive immigration reform including a path to citizenship for all 2.7 million DREAMers, and perhaps permanent residency and work permits to the rest of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. Even if he and or the Republican controlled Senate won’t go for that it’s a place to start negotiations and maybe at least end up with citizenship for 800,000 currently in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA.

It’s in the nation’s best interest to end the stalemate, let Trump have is stupid wall as long as we actually address a real immigration issue as part of the deal.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 11, 2019