Pete Buttigieg doesn't have a plan on immigration. He has a welcome mat Washington Examiner, Dec 23, 2019, Eddie Scarry
Current immigration policy is muddied at best , functioning as half border protection, half charity for the world's poor. Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg proposes to erase that ambiguity and just make it 100% charity.
The mayor of South Bend, Indiana, released his immigration policy proposals on Sunday. There's essentially no difference between them and what the rest of the 2020 Democratic field has been saying, which is to say, he is for free healthcare for illegal immigrants and essentially no enforcement at the border.
Buttigieg's proposal also contains no real policy. It's nothing more than a group of goals for increasing the number of immigrants in the United States and giving them all welfare because, well, isn't that what we do now? We give away stuff to every poor and sick person who shows up at the border.
"The number of permanent residents eligible to naturalize has grown to nine million," Buttigieg says in his plan. He adds, "We will reduce barriers to naturalization and actively encourage citizenship." But anyone eligible for citizenship can apply. The barriers aren't even that high. There's a fee and a wait time, and that's more or less it.
He adds, "We will prioritize family unity by reducing the green card backlog." That means issuing more green cards. He says we'll eliminate "bars to reentry so families can be together," even though family chain migration is how most immigrants enter the country for permanent stays anyway.
He also says his plan "uses detention sparingly." Detention is, at this moment, only for illegal border crossers. So, does Buttigieg want to let the vast majority of illegal border crossers loose into the country?
He says the current sham known as "asylum" will be updated to ensure "every asylum-seeker has a meaningful opportunity to present their case and is treated humanely throughout the process."
Again, that is already the case — though, admittedly, nothing short of a stay at a Sandals resort is ever considered "humane" by Democrats.
This is only an immigration "plan" if you don't consider immigration a problem. It's the equivalent of a "plan" for your son getting straight Ds on his report card that involves simply accepting that he won't go to college.
Buttigieg doesn't have a plan for immigration. He has a welcome mat.