Why I voted against the Republican border bill: Rep. John Duarte of Modesto | Opinion
Editor’s note: This column was submitted and prepared for print before the actual vote, anticipating it would take place Thursday after deadline for Friday’s newspaper.
We all know America has a crisis at our southern border. A lack of border security is allowing dangerous drugs to flood our communities, cartels to prey on the innocent, and gang violence to steal precious lives from Modesto to Madera.
Thousands of hardworking Valley families are trapped in the shadows, unable to navigate a broken immigration system. Over and over, our working communities are treated as a political football that both parties toss back and forth in a Washington game. This crisis demands a solution that will deliver real results, not serve as a messaging tool. That is why I voted against the Secure the Border Act.
My biggest technical concern with the bill is the mandating of Washington’s rigid E-Verify program, which would require employers and employees to provide extensive, expensive and intrusive paperwork to the federal government. Rather than taking responsibility for the border situation they created, Washington politicians would burden our working families and small businesses with huge costs. Lawmakers need to take responsibility and pass effective legislation to fix the humanitarian crisis on our border.
This bill has no chance of ever becoming law. President Biden and Senate Democrats have made clear they do not support this bill as it stands. If we want to get serious about addressing the crisis at our border, we need to find common ground between Democrats and Republicans. We must fix DACA, build a flexible and effective guest worker program, and protect our border. We need to put together real solutions, not point fingers at the other party while working families suffer.
Border security shouldn’t be a partisan issue. The vast majority of Americans want to see solutions to the humanitarian crisis facing our country. Rather than pushing a bill that never will become law, Republicans and Democrats should be working to find common ground on fixing our immigration process so the thousands of working families trapped in a broken system can come out of the shadows.
I understand that my vote will not be popular among some of my fellow Republicans. I am committed to upholding my promise to put Valley families ahead of Washington party politics. I have never been afraid to stand up for our Valley, even if it means standing alone.
I will continue to work with my colleagues, both Democratic and Republican, to find common-sense solutions to secure our border and protect our families.
Rep. John Duarte represents Congressional District 13, including Ceres, parts of Modesto and Turlock and the West Side of Stanislaus County.
