A newly formed group in Congress, called the Congressional Caucus on Global Migration, led by progressives in the House will be working on changing the conversation from border control to fixing the root causes of migration to the U.S.
The new caucus will be led by a trio of progressives in the House, co-chaired by Reps. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., Greg Casar, D-Texas, and Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif. It will count with 14 founding House members.
The caucus comes at a time when immigration has become a major focal point in the Biden camp's re-election bid as it adopts some conservative proposals to further increase border control. Nevertheless, progressives, like the ones leading the caucus, are urging the party to not embrace these attitudes and rather look at what is making immigration so prominent and problematic.
In a recently shared memo, the Democrats said families around the world are migrating at unprecedented levels "in search of safety and stability" because of a mix of global "violence, civil wars, human rights violations, democratic backsliding, economic exclusion, and climate instability," NBC News reports.
They also say the U.S. government's efforts are not enough in reversing these trends.
"We Democrats have done a terrible job in actually talking about immigration and actually talking about root causes of migration," Ramirez said in an interview with NBC News. "We've just been reactive and apologetic instead of actually moving in the direction that positions Congress to be an effective ally to global efforts that creates a safer, more equitable world where people don't have to come to the U.S."
The Caucus chairs also explained that the main issue with how immigration is being dealt with is that officials assume the process starts at the border, rather than migrants' home countries.
"And hardly anybody is talking about that," Casar said.
"When I sat down recently with the ambassador from Mexico, the very first issue he brought up was the majority of the guns that they confiscate from cartels coming from the United States," he continued. "And a huge portion of them are from Texas, because you can buy a gun without a background check and without a license in Texas... The United States should make sure that we work to not contribute to further violence and destabilization in Mexico."
This isn't the first time Congress has tried to tackle a similar issue. In 2021, the White House assigned Vice President Kamala Harris as part of a "Root Causes Strategy" to handle the underlying crises in Central America fueling migration, NBC News reported. That attempt however, failed to deliver results as the U.S. asylum system has become even more overwhelmed.
The Caucus' creation also comes days before the first presidential debate of the 2024 general election season, where immigration and handling of the border is set to become a major point of contention.
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