This week showed Democrats can flip the script on immigration

In American politics, each party has perceived ownership of certain subjects: Democrats on health care, say, or Republicans on taxes. But parties can take that advantage for granted, leaving an opening for the other side.

That appears to be happening right now on immigration, where Republicans are handing Democrats an opportunity to seize the high ground.

Consider two big stories from this week side by side.

In Washington, D.C., the House GOP voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas mere days after Republican senators walked away from a bipartisan, highly restrictionist border deal, and in New York, Democrat Tom Suozzi won a special election, in part, by flipping the script on immigration. Taken together, they present an opportunity for Democrats to not only wrestle back the immigration issue, but to reframe it in the minds of voters.

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White House to use Suozzi’s border strategy on the road February 14, 2024 / 04:18

Let’s start with the Mayorkas impeachment. On Tuesday, the House voted 214-213 to impeach Mayorkas over his handling of the border: a policy dispute, not a constitutional violation. Three Republicans voted against impeachment, including Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who said the evidence did not rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. Some House Republicans even admitted the Mayorkas impeachment is a messaging tool. As GOP Rep. French Hill of Arkansas told Fox Business: “Mayorkas will pay this public relations price by being impeached.”

Then, you have Tuesday’s special election in New York’s 3rd District to fill a U.S. House seat vacated by the expulsion of GOP Rep. George Santos. Suozzi, who represented the district from 2017 to 2023, soundly defeated Republican Mazi Melesa Pilip after a campaign in which he highlighted GOP stonewalling on the issue, said the border should be shut down temporarily and called for deporting men involved in a scuffle with New York City police.

After Suozzi’s victory, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut urged his fellow Democrats to play offense on the campaign trail when addressing the humanitarian crisis at the border. In a memo Wednesday, Murphy said, “[Suozzi] flipped the script on his Republican opponent, successfully painting her as unserious about border security because of her opposition to the bipartisan border bill, and turned what could have been a devastating political liability into an advantage,” referring to the bipartisan border deal Republicans in the U.S. Senate torpedoed earlier this month.

That bill wasn’t even the kind of bipartisan immigration compromise we’ve seen falter before. Instead, it was a Republican wish list, with no relief in it for immigrants in the country’s interior. Indeed, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragán described it as “a hostage taking, not a negotiation.” And yet, Republicans rejected the supplemental aid bill — which also included aid to Ukraine and Israel — at the urging of former President Donald Trump.

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Yes, Republicans are unserious about fixing America’s immigration system. Yes, Democrats have an opportunity to flip the script. But what’s critical to understand is that Suozzi didn’t just highlight Republicans’ inaction. He expanded the conversation beyond Republicans’ enforcement-only, border-only frame. Immigration reform group America’s Voice described Suozzi’s campaign as having “broadened the focus of what immigration solutions should look like by pairing a focus on an orderly border with full-throated support for citizenship and legal status for long-settled immigrants.”

Polls show Americas are concerned about the situation at the border, but they also show that they are generally supportive of immigration and helping immigrants who are already here.

Most Americans support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. A new UMass-Amherst/WCVB poll found 52% of U.S. adults think the government should allow these immigrants — our neighbors, our classmates, the people sitting next to us in our places of worship — to become citizens if they meet requirements for citizenship and have not committed crimes. That support grows to 63% for immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children, the so-called Dreamers.

By focusing on sham impeachments and field trips to the border instead of bipartisan solutions, Republicans have ceded new ground to Democrats. Now that question becomes: Will Democrats be brave enough to use the opportunity to reset the national conversation around immigration? Not just to win elections, but to then parlay electoral success into a commitment to creating an immigration system that is orderly and fair, and finally delivering for immigrants who already call this country home.

Republicans may have an advantage on immigration as a campaign issue for now, but that may not last if Democrats get serious.