Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.) recently proposed legislation that would allow certain migrants to join the U.S. military and then access an expedited path to citizenship — leading to likely predictable outrage from the usual suspects, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who still commentates online.
Ryan didn’t hold back in his reactions to the complaints. “You can’t be Putin’s puppet and call yourself a Patriot,” Ryan wrote on X (formerly Twitter), referring to Carlson’s recent, highly publicized expressions of support for the current state of Russian society under authoritarian leader Vladimir Putin. “I served two combat tours in Iraq. I don’t take advice from bow-tie-wearing bozos who’ve never served a single day in uniform. @TuckerCarlson, you’re a traitor.”
In the specific video to which Ryan was replying, Carlson was essentially arguing that migrants joining the U.S. military couldn’t be trusted to actually advance the interests of the country.
It mirrors the consistent claims from the far-right that migrants arriving at the southern border are perpetrating an “invasion” of the United States — over-the-top rhetoric that doesn’t match the basic reality of the situation in that it’s not a scenario of military or fighting forces pouring over the border. In many circumstances, those arriving are everyday people seeking better living conditions or escape from specific dangers in their places of origin, and many are potentially encouraged by the current state of the U.S. immigration system left in place by Congressional Republicans refusing recent proposals for a bipartisan solution. And major solutions would presently necessitate bipartisan action, since control of Congress is divided.
The Biden team has been clamoring for another go-around in Congress for a bipartisan immigration and border proposal recently voted down by GOP Senators, but Republicans are sticking with their demands for increasingly partisan border plans. That includes a return to forcing some asylum-seekers to wait in potential danger outside the U.S. while their cases are processed. The other side of the current proposals, including an expansion of the roster of immigration judges allowing for resolution in the extensive case backlog, would help eliminate potential incentives for undocumented immigration since the turnaround time before potential removal would be much shorter, even President Joe Biden has argued.
