Democrat journalist publishes a book demanding open borders
https://newrepublic.com/article/179320/immigration-journalist-makes-case-open-bordersAn Immigration Journalist Makes the Case for Open Borders
John Washington has spent years reporting on the U.S.-Mexico border. In a new book, he makes the case for its abolition.
For several months beginning late last year, Senate Democrats and Republicans came together to negotiate a bipartisan border bill that, if passed, would have represented an unprecedented crackdown on undocumented immigration. President Joe Biden championed the bill, vowing to wield the new authority it would give him to “shut down the border.” What happened next? Donald Trump, sensing a potential loss of political capital heading into the 2024 election, began campaigning vociferously against the legislation, which he deemed a “horrible open borders betrayal of America.” The GOP quickly fell into line, slamming the bipartisan deal as a “Biden/Schumer Open Border Bill.” The bill officially tanked in early February, though members of both parties continue to scramble to out-tough each other on the border. On Thursday, both Biden and Trump are headed to southern Texas, where the President will tout “the toughest and fairest set of reforms to secure the border in decades.”
In his new book, The Case for Open Borders, Washington attempts to reclaim the much-abused term as a coherent political aspiration—one that, he says, is essential if we are to achieve just outcomes on a number of global issues in the twenty-first century. By taking steps to decriminalize the act of crossing borders, defund and demilitarize bloated immigration agencies, and cancel contracts with private for-profit companies handling immigration detention and enforcement, among other changes, we can move toward a world in which, Washington argues, nobody is jailed or deported for “seeking safety and dignity.”
