Immigration March 31, 2021

Opinion: Now Republicans Care About Migrant Children?

DONNA, TEXAS - MARCH 30: Young children lie inside a pod at the Department of Homeland Security holding facility run by the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) on March 30, 2021 in Donna, Texas. The Donna location is the main detention center for unaccompanied children coming across the U.S. border in the Rio Grande Valley. The children are housed by the hundreds in eight pods that are about 3,200 square feet in size. Many of the pods had more than 500 children in them. The youngest of the unaccompanied minors are kept separate from the rest of the detainees. The Biden administration has just allowed journalists inside its main detention facility at the border for migrant children. It is an overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,000 kids and families are kept in pods, with the youngest kept in a large play pen with mats on the floor for sleeping. (Photo by Dario Lopez-Mills - Pool/Getty Images)

After pressure from Republican Senators, the White House finally allowed reporters access to a processing facility in Donna, Texas, where a large number of migrant families and children are being held, and the images from inside are predictably horrible. They were also horrific when reporters were allowed in to see children who were separated from their parents at the border and tossed in cages by the Trump administration.

If it strikes you as odd that the Republican Party suddenly feels compassion for migrants, you’re not alone. The same party that tried to build a wall along the southern border, that separated parents from children, that changed the rules and refused to allow amnesty seekers into this country, now suddenly calls the rush of children to the U.S. border a humanitarian crisis? Why do they suddenly seem to care? For as crass as it sounds, immigration, they feel, will always be a winning issue with their base. There’s a reason Ted Cruz and his senatorial cohorts are wading around the banks of the Rio Grande—polling. The new Biden presidency has surprisingly strong support, and polling numbers. The GOP was caught flat-footed by the popularity of Covid relief. And Donald Trump could only dream about the job approval ratings Joe Biden currently holds. So, the GOP, and the cable news compadres at Fox, have been knocked back on their heels. Time to dial up some hysteria.

THREAD — Reporters toured the temporary border facility in Donna, TX today.

The Biden admin allowed pooled coverage for the first time.

We saw a “pod” designed for 32 migrant children under CDC guidelines now holding 615.

The facility is at 1700% pandemic capacity.

📸:TV Pool pic.twitter.com/cJTPUAxXmc
— Nicole Sganga (@NicoleSganga) March 30, 2021

The kids and adults at the Texas facility seem like they have little room to move. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a statement essentially admitting the children in that facility deserve better.

“As I have said repeatedly, a Border Patrol facility is no place for a child.”

Mayorkas added that border agents were “working around the clock” to move migrant children out of overcrowded border facilities like the one in Donna and into government shelters before they are placed with family members or other sponsors.

But does the GOP really want to go down this road? While a tough stance on immigration played well with the base, it was a loser among all voters. Remember this?

"Private GOP polling" suggests that Trump's agenda on immigration "has failed to move the country in his favor, Republicans who work closely with the president said."

Ya think? Still, good to see that even those around Trump admit it.https://t.co/H9dTFsPxpm
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) January 27, 2019

And here was Ted Cruz in 2018:

A new poll shows that the praise Biden has earned for his handling of the pandemic has been tempered by disappointment over what’s happening at the border. And it’s become an issue for Republicans to use against Biden, with Senator Ted Cruz leading the charge with publicity stunts like border trips and dramatically-lit videos.

Allowing reporters access to see things for themselves is a good and overdue first step. Now the administration has to figure out a way to get those kids out of those crowded camps and into better, more humane shelters.

As for Republicans, it’s embarrassingly easy to see through the strategy. It didn’t work in 2018, or 2020. So please, play it again, Ted.

Featured image provided by Getty Images