By Christen Smith | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Senate hopeful Dave McCormick took the stage at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday to blast the Biden administration’s border policies as weak and dangerous.
It’s a common refrain for McCormick, Pennsylvania’s GOP nominee to unseat long-time Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. His platform centers on what he believes is a symbiotic relationship between national security and economic prosperity – a bond he says a broken immigration system erodes.
The message was well-received as part of the convention’s “Make America Safe Again” theme Tuesday night. It also comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump’s attempted assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., at which McCormick said he witnessed “from the front row.”
“My friends, the choice this November is clear,” he said. “It’s a choice between strength and weakness. A choice between America’s greatness or its sad, disgraceful decline.”
During a roundtable last month, McCormick said lackadaisical border policies increase crime, flood the nation with opioids and exploit vulnerable migrants who enter the country illegally.
“This false choice that somehow you can’t be very opposed to illegal immigration and also very pro-immigrant is nonsense,” McCormick said during the discussion.
He also took exception to the notion that the Biden administration’s border policies are “compassionate.”
In May 2023, the administration lifted a pandemic-era restriction on migrants seeking asylum in the United States. Former President Donald Trump leaned on Title 42, a provision found in a 1944 public health law, to curtail the flow of migrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Roughly 2.8 million migrants were turned back between 2020 and 2023 while they awaited approval, except for families and unaccompanied children. Lifting the emergency health order reverted to a decades-old law that gives asylum-seekers shelter while they navigate the court system.
The rollback also included new stipulations meant to slow the surge of anticipated illegal crossings, which rebounded to 2.5 million in 2023 alone.
The monthly quota for migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba was set to 30,000. The figure rises to 100,000 for those coming from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
McCormick said, however, the influx of illegal crossings has triggered a “huge exploitation” of undocumented migrants that causes more human suffering.
“The only way to fix that problem is to secure the border,” he said.
Critics argue that the new restrictions don’t really help, either. After applying online, migrants must come via airplane and have U.S. sponsors lest they face deportation. Those who can’t meet those requirements can vie for one of the 1,000 slots allocated daily via an app run by Central Border Patrol.
The National Immigration Forum said that other policies speed up deportation and threaten criminal prosecution for illegal reentry, as well as expedited interviews that occur without attorneys present, will make it harder for legitimate asylum seekers to enter the country.