After a failed bipartisan national security bill and amid reports that the White House is considering executive action that could restrict asylum, the country's immigration crisis will be a topic of interest for many of those attending the speech. on President Biden's State of the Union on Thursday.
Biden is expected to tout the successes of his first term, including increased spending on infrastructure and manufacturing, and talk about how he would further improve the economy during a second term.
But how much of his speech will he dedicate to discussing immigration? Listeners may be disappointed.
“Do you want to remind people that 'I've been in office for three years and we've had more people cross the border than [ever]'? It's kind of a failure,” said Alison Howard, a political science professor at Dominican University of California who researches State of the Union addresses.
“You can't ignore it,” Howard said. “But do you want that to be the conclusion of his State of the Union address? I do not think so”.
Attendees will tell a different story. Several members of Congress have announced guests who symbolize various aspects of the debate.
They include a New York Border Patrol agent; an immigrant rights activist from Chicago; Recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program; and the wife of a man killed by a neighbor in Texas who said Latinos were not welcome in her community.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank) will bring in United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero to draw attention to her support for a path to citizenship for farmworkers. On Tuesday, Schiff won his primary bid to run for the U.S. Senate in November, boosted in part by support from unions like the UFW.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R.N.Y.) will bring Brandon Budlong, Border Patrol agent and president of Local 2724 of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents agents in the Buffalo sector throughout the northern border. Stefanik voted in favor of the Republican-led Securing the Border Act and voted to remove Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.
“Biden’s sweeping policies have incentivized an unprecedented number of illegal crossings into the Swanton and Buffalo sectors, putting tens of thousands of lives at risk, including those of our Border Patrol agents,” Stefanik wrote in a statement announcing your guest.
The Department of Homeland Security has said the increase is due to a global immigration challenge that is not unique to the United States.
NYPD Officer Zunxu Tian and Lt. Ben Kurian attend as guests of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and New York Republican Reps. Anthony D'Esposito and Nicole Malliotakis. A viral video showed officers being assaulted in Times Square in January by a group of people who police said included immigrants, although at least one was later cleared of any wrongdoing. Johnson also invited a woman whose daughter was allegedly murdered by a member of the Salvadoran gang MS-13.
California Senator Alex Padilla will bring Dr. Denisse Rojas Márquez, a beneficiary of DACA, the Obama-era program for immigrants known as “Dreamers” who were brought to the United States as minors. Rojas Márquez is a resident emergency room physician at Boston Medical Center and co-founder of Pre-Health Dreamers, an organization that helps immigrants access health care and pursue careers in the field.
“I fully expect the president to address border security,” said Padilla, who opposed the bipartisan bill because it did not include a legalization component for Dreamers and other immigrants.
“If you're going to lead this, you need to remember what you said when you ran for president a few years ago: that what's necessary is a comprehensive approach. “It is not only appropriate but important that you hold Republicans accountable,” the senator said.
A White House official, who discussed Biden's speech on condition of anonymity, said the president planned to say the Republican-controlled House should pass the bipartisan national security bill and address the need for more resources and reforms. policies.
Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) will also bring in a DACA recipient: Valeria Delgado, a Chapman University student and aspiring physician assistant.
Correa, the top Democrat on the House borders and law enforcement subcommittee, said he has brought a so-called Dreamer to the event every year since he was elected in 2017. Given the heightened rhetoric around immigration, He said, tradition is especially important this year.
Correa said immigration was one of the most important issues that brought him to Congress and that it has been oversimplified into a single political talking point. But there are three distinct issues, he said: long-term immigrants who have spent decades working and paying taxes but remain undocumented; the newly arrived migrant crisis driven by global economic instability exacerbated by COVID-19; and the threat of real terrorism.
He expressed frustration that despite long-standing bipartisan support for the Dreamers, gridlock in Congress has prevented the passage of reforms, even those that both major parties agree on.
“I need to keep reminding people that we need to get back to the basics,” Correa said. “Our economy needs workers (we need good, solid, hardworking people) and we must continue working for common sense immigration reform.”
But he said the current political environment is so toxic for immigrants that he doesn't expect reforms to come soon. Many of his colleagues, he said, “would probably be risking their careers.”
In the weeks leading up to Biden's State of the Union address, the White House has been pressing Republicans to help pass the border security bill. The president has taken an increasingly tough tone on the issue, saying he would close the border if he had the ability.
Former President Trump baselessly claimed while campaigning in North Carolina on Saturday for the Super Tuesday primary that “Biden's conduct at our border is, by definition, a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America.”
In response, Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa pointed to the failed bill. “Once again, Trump is projecting an attempt to distract the American people from the fact that he repealed the fairest and toughest border security bill in decades because he believed that [inaction by Congress] It would help his campaign,” Moussa said in a statement.
Howard, a professor at Dominican University, said the tradition of inviting guests to the State of the Union is used to put human faces on political issues.
This year, First Lady Jill Biden invited Kate Cox, the Texas woman who was denied an emergency abortion by the state Supreme Court.
Guests are also invited to be recognized as heroes, as was the case last year when the president invited Brandon Tsay, who had disarmed the mass shooter in Monterey Park.
“Members of Congress are paying attention to what they think will help support the party or embarrass the other party with their choice of guest,” Howard said.
On immigration, Biden is unlikely to convince Congress to enact immediate reforms with his speech, he said. But he could talk about Trump-era executive orders that he revoked when he first took office and discuss what to expect in a second term on the topic.
Times staff writer Noah Bierman contributed to this report.
