The Importance of Enforcement in a City of Violence: State and Local Laws Under President Biden during the 2008-2009 Pandemic
Progressives likeMichelle Vallejo say that the party’s moderates have spent too much time focused on enforcement.
A spokeswoman with Mr. Kelly’s campaign said Mr. Kelly has sought to prioritize the needs of Arizonans ahead of either political party on the issue, while expressing support to provide legal pathways to citizenship and in-state tuition for immigrants brought into the country as children.
His administration kept the issue front and center, with hard-line measures that included barring travel from several predominantly Muslim countries; ending protections for young immigrants brought into the country illegally as children; and separating migrant parents from their children at the border to deter crossings. During the pandemic, Mr. Trump also used an old public health rule to quickly expel asylum seekers.
Outrage over these policies seemed to push Democrats to the left on the issue, and Mr. Biden entered office promising to reverse Mr. Trump’s approach. But as record numbers of undocumented immigrants arrive at the border, moderate and progressive Democrats have been bitterly divided on how to respond. Mr. Biden’s proposal to overhaul immigration laws has stalled in Congress, and his administration has struggled to carry out a concerted enforcement strategy.
The president’s attempt to overturn the pandemic-era health rule drew criticism from congressional Democrats facing tough re-election fights, including Mr. Cuellar and Mr. Gonzalez as well as Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire. The court ordered the blocking of the rollback.
I don’t think it’s right. The DC law lowers sentencing requirements for some violent criminals, but Manchin said that he didn’t want to let them out. I am aware of the situation and I would vote to remove it.
The legislation has a good chance of passage in the Senate, which is currently divided between Democrats and Republicans. It passed earlier this month in the Republican-controlled House with the backing of 31 Democrats.
Tennessee Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty, the chief sponsor of the legislation to repeal the local law – as Congress is allowed to do in the federal district – called it a “common sense” approach in a city where many violent crimes are up. Politically, he compared it to the “defund the police” issue and said for centrist Democrats, “I don’t think that’s going to be very popular in their states and this falls right in that lane.”
A lot of the American people feel the same way. They look at the cities today and they say they’re not safe places. I think it’s a problem for Democrats to oppose something that would make some of our larger population centers more safe,” Thune said. Some Democrats in the Senate are expected to vote for it. Then it was up to Biden to decide what he wanted to do.
Many Democrats oppose overriding the DC law. They argue local officials should make their own laws free of congressional interference and decry Republicans as hypocrites since they typically promote state and local rights. The law was passed after the council overrode the mayor’s veto. She doesn’t want Congress to overturn the new law.
Complicating Democrats’ efforts to prevent the Republicans from passing their bill is the absence of Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat of Pennsylvania, who is hospitalized for an unknown duration.
The G.O.P. had been working to turn Mr. Biden and his party into a liability because of the law being used by Republicans to put Democrats on the spot about crime. It was the latest signal that such efforts have prompted concerns among Democrats at a time when crime appears to be resonating as a political issue around the country. It was illustrated most recently in Chicago’s mayor’s race where a lot of people were dissatisfied with her handling of crime and policing.
The pressure on Senate Democrats to vote on the resolution lessened because of Mr. Biden’s shift, sparing them a vote that would defy a veto threat and possibly cause a difficult decision on whether to overturn him.
A number of people said after lunch they would support the effort to block the law, and many were expected to follow suit.
The Rise of High-Profile Crimes in D.C. and the Post-Pandemic War in the U.S.
The local criminal code was revised in D.C., but has caused a lot of controversy because it reduced or eliminated mandatory minimum sentencing for high-profile crimes. In the District, violent crime has fallen slightly. But like other communities around the country, D.C. has been plagued by a rash of high-profile crimes — many by juveniles — as the pandemic wound down.