Amid an ongoing border crisis that has gone on throughout President Biden’s presidency, one progressive House member is calling on Vice President Harris to lead reform efforts and suggesting a Republican idea as a starting point.
The constant influx of migrants entering the U.S. over the southern border has led to partisan squabbling as Republican governors send people to Democratic enclaves like New York City, Washington, D.C. and Martha’s Vineyard. In an interview with Fox News’ “America Reports” on Monday, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., called for a solution that he thinks everyone should be able to get behind.
“I think we need a better solution on comprehensive immigration reform, and so what I would say to the vice president is help lead to get comprehensive immigration reform done,” Khanna said.
Harris, who was appointed to address the root cause of the migrant problem, recently claimed that the border is “secure,” claiming that the U.S. has a “broken” immigration system that the Biden administration inherited from former President Donald Trump.
As for how to address immigration, Khanna looked not to Trump but to the previous GOP president.
“There is a framework that President George W. Bush did. He was a border state governor, he had a proposal back in the early 2000s. I think if we could just do that,” Khanna suggested.
Bush’s proposal was to allow temporary foreign guest workers to enter the U.S. and work legally, then go back home. Khanna noted that the House already passed proposed legislation to allow people to be in the U.S. as guest workers and then return.
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“It’s not even path to citizenship. Why can’t we at least do things like that, that would reduce the tension?” he asked.
Khanna addressed those in border communities, specifically ranchers, who are concerned about migrants crossing the border and damaging their property.
“I’m sympathetic to that, I understand that. That has to be fixed,” he said. “At the same time, many of these ranchers want people to hire. So how do we fix this? Well, there’s a guest worker program that would solve a lot of it. It wasn’t my idea, it wasn’t a Democratic idea, it was a Republican president, President George W. Bush. I’m saying let’s just pass that, and we can take a step forward.”