Sen. Tillis’ immigration bill was a rare display of political courage | Opinion

According to a great philosopher — Calvin from the “Calvin & Hobbes” comic strip — a good compromise leaves everybody mad. If that’s the case, then congratulations are due to Sen. Thom Tillis.

His bipartisan immigration bill, drafted in partnership with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, drew howls of outrage from the left and right, culminating with it being denied a vote.

Conservatives called it immigration amnesty in disguise. Progressives called it an assault on asylum seekers. Both sides warned that it had limited prospects in the waning days of the lame-duck session — and zero chance of becoming law once Republicans take control of the House this month.

Despite the bills’ flaws and eventual failure we should acknowledge the value of this bipartisan legislative unicorn. The Tillis-Sinema bill was a serious attempt to bring both sides together to address some of our country’s most urgent immigration problems.

Crucially, it would have given around 2 million Dreamers — people brought to America as children, and raised and educated as Americans — a real path to citizenship. It would also have provided new resources to process asylum cases, along with resources to strengthen border security and quickly remove asylum seekers who don’t qualify.

Controversially, it would have extended COVID-related rules that see many asylum seekers shipped to Mexico — a policy that immigration advocates say violates international law.

It was an imperfect solution, but while both sides continue to bicker over exactly what should or shouldn’t have been included in the bill — or what should be included in the next attempt — one thing is clear. In North Carolina, we urgently need a solution (perhaps even an imperfect one) to help our Dreamers.

Statewide, almost 33,000 Dreamers are currently enrolled in or eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which lets them study and work without fear of deportation. But it’s very much a stopgap solution. DACA recipients have no path to permanent status, and at any moment a court or future president could scrap the program and order them deported.

That would be an enormous injustice. But it would also be a massive self-inflicted wound for our country. In North Carolina alone, DACA-eligible workers have a total spending power of almost $533 million, and pay almost $139 million a year in federal, state, and local taxes. With 93% of DACA recipients gainfully employed, our businesses have come to rely on these young people — especially during recent labor shortages — to help expand their businesses and drive economic growth for everyone.

Regardless of the Tillis-Sinema bill’s shortcomings, giving the Dreamers a meaningful path to citizenship would have been an unequivocal triumph — and would have allowed the bill’s backers to bank some political capital among younger voters, an increasingly important voting bloc.

The proposed bill wouldn’t have solved everything, of course. I’d love to see lawmakers do more to support high-skilled workers, for instance. In North Carolina, we have thousands of Indian skilled immigrants who are effectively barred from obtaining green cards because country-specific quotas mean they face decades-long waits for a visa.

For now, it’s important to recognize that getting an immigration bill before Congress — even an imperfect one, and even just briefly — is an enormous achievement. Breaking legislative logjams isn’t easy, and that’s doubly true for immigration reforms. More than one Republican has paid a political price for trying to lead on these issues.

Political courage is in short supply these days, and as we move into a divided Congress we’ll need more lawmakers on both sides of the aisle willing to make their friends and enemies unhappy to get the job done. Regardless of whether we agree with everything his bill would have done, Sen. Tillis deserves our praise for raising his head above the parapets and taking a real political risk. As we move forward, we’ll need more of that kind of courage, from lawmakers on both sides, to drive the action we need on immigration issues.