Lindsey Graham: Mass deportations are the ‘only’ solution to immigration

Lindsey Graham boiled down the Republican Party’s cruel, inhumane anti-immigrant agenda to a 30-second clip Tuesday. 

Flanked by other conservative lawmakers, the South Carolina senator denounced President Joe Biden’s strict anti-immigration crackdown — which involves severe caps on asylum requests — as being too soft.

According to Graham, what’s needed is the spectacle of “hundreds of thousands” of people being marched out of the country in droves, a plan he claimed he discussed with Donald Trump on Tuesday morning. 

Graham said:

“They will keep coming until they see people leaving. [Trump] told me this morning, when he gets to be president, not only is he gonna secure the border, he’s going to deport hundreds of thousands of people here illegally. And if you wanna shut down illegal immigration, those coming need to see an outflow by the tens and hundreds of thousands. That will deter. The only policy change that will work is to have mass deportations. Because people will stop coming when they see people leaving.”

View the clip here:

Graham’s comments would have you believe that the cruel spectacle of millions of people being drummed out of the country is the only way to resolve immigration issues. 

Not preventing the flow of American guns to foreign nations, which helps fuel gang violence abroad. Not investing in international climate resilience ensures foreign countries that people flee remain inhabitable for those who still wish to live there. 

No — according to Graham, the visual of mass deportations is the “only” solution to the United States’ immigration crisis. Those well-versed in history might call it his “final solution.” But let’s be clear: Mass deportations would devastate American families, they’d likely run afoul of human rights law, and they’d do grave damage to the U.S. economy. 

Graham’s proposal is what you get from a Republican Party more obsessed with performance than effective policy. 

But it also speaks to why many liberals are frustrated with Biden’s immigration announcement, which seems like an effort to boost his bona fides on an issue some polling has suggested he is seen as somewhat weaker than Trump.

Graham’s remarks show Republicans — a party whose members have openly discussed “putting hands” on immigrants and celebrated a rancher accused of killing an immigrant — are always willing to move farther to the right to project their purported toughness on immigration. Moving right along with them, as Biden has done, doesn’t necessarily mean the administration’s skeptics on this issue will suddenly change their minds.