Kansas’ Roger Marshall demonizes immigrants. Jerry Moran treats them like human beings | Opinion

When it comes to immigration, Kansas’ two U.S. senators are ostensibly on the same side.

Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall are both Republicans. They’re both critics of President Joe Biden. And they both have long-standing complaints about America’s “broken” immigration system.

But those similarities only go so far. In reality, the two men have very different approaches to the white-hot issue of immigration. To put it bluntly: Marshall is a fearmonger. Moran, at least, treats migrants with a little bit of dignity and respect.

The two approaches have been on display in recent days.

Let’s start with Marshall. Last week, the state’s junior senator last week announced the launch of a “new initiative to raise awareness of violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants.”

So far, that initiative has mostly consisted of Marshall making right-wing media appearances and social media posts that highlight some admittedly grizzly crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

The violence, he said, is “skyrocketing.”

“These crimes are horrific, torturing, raping, murdering young girls,” Marshall said on Fox Business. “It is, it is just horrible.”

He’s right. Some of the crimes really are horrible. But Marshall’s campaign is misleading.

Why? It’s profoundly dehumanizing to migrants. To watch the senator’s media appearances, you’d get the idea that newcomers to America are largely intent on preying upon native-born Americans. In reality, the vast majority of those new folks are seeking out freedom and new opportunities for their families — the same story your parents or grandparents or great-grandparents could probably tell.

Yes, some immigrants do commit crimes. But studies have demonstrated that migrants, documented or otherwise, break the law less often than folks who have lived in America their entire lives. It’s an inconvenient truth unlikely to appeal much to the kind of supporters Marshall is seeking out on Fox.

Which leads us to Moran.

On Sunday, the longtime senator published a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “The Immigrants We Shouldn’t Forget.” The piece was aimed at mustering support for the Afghan Adjustment Act, a bill he’s co-sponsoring to help refugees from that war gain permanent residency.

Moran made it clear in the opening paragraph that he’s a conservative on immigration, and opposed to Biden administration policies.

“For years our borders have been open to those who seek to exploit our asylum laws and the current administration’s lax parole policies,” he wrote.

But he also expressed sympathy for Afghan refugees he recently met in Manhattan, Kansas.

“What I heard from refugees was overwhelming gratitude about the opportunities they have had since arriving, the challenges that remain, and their concerns for families left behind,” the senator wrote. Giving those Afghans a legal path to permanent residency would show “that the American system works for those who abide by the law and come here legally.”

It was an essay that acknowledged flaws in America’s immigration system while still treating migrants with respect and dignity.

That’s positively refreshing these days.

It’s not easy to find nuance in our national immigration debate right now. The issue seems designed to produce more sound and fury than any real action or solutions.

Republicans in the U.S. House, after all, are trying to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his supposed “open borders” policy. But it’s pure election year theater: Even if impeachment passes the House — and no real crimes or misdemeanors are alleged — it has no chance of getting enough Senate support to remove Mayorkas from office.

Over in the Senate, Oklahoma Republican James Lankford is leading a bipartisan effort to toughen border enforcement. But that proposed bill is probably dead on arrival, mostly because it’s opposed by Donald Trump, who would rather save the issue for his presidential campaign than let his party try to fix things.

All we’re left with is the endless, grinding argument.

The least we should hope is for that argument to be honest and respectful of the people with the most at stake. Unfortunately for Kansas, only one of our senators is meeting the challenge.

Joel Mathis is a regular Kansas City Star and Wichita Eagle Opinion correspondent. He lives in Lawrence with his wife and son. Formerly a writer and editor at Kansas newspapers, he served nine years as a syndicated columnist.