Wisconsin Senate Democrat candidate Mandela Barnes stated during Thursday night’s debate that he favors an “immediate” path to citizenship for illegal migrants crossing the southern border.
“What would you suggest for their pathway to citizenship?” the moderator asked.
“We should process them immediately into a path for citizenship,” Barnes responded. “We need to make sure people who have been here, people who have been working, people who have been contributing, should have a path to citizenship if they so choose.”
Barnes then accused Republicans of “fear-mongering,” which has delayed “comprehensive immigration reform.”
“But the issue has been so demagogued — again, the fear-mongering that is being used as a reason why we do not have comprehensive immigration reform,” he said about Republicans. “They want to scare the hell out of everybody on this issue. It is only making people’s lives worse, making lives more difficult, and it’s contributing to a more inhumane system.”
Barnes has supported abolishing ICE and is backed by radical groups leading the abolish ICE movement. He has also pushed for permitting illegal immigrants to have access to driver’s licenses and in-state college tuition.
In contrast, Barnes’s opponent, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), has introduced legislation to the Stopping Overdoses of Fentanyl Analogues (SOFA) Act to provide law enforcement with enhanced tools to combat the opioid epidemic. He is also endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council.
August was the fifth month in a row in which migrant apprehensions by border patrol exceeded 180,000 migrants. September’s numbers have not yet been released.
Democrat policies have led to almost two million migrant encounters by border patrol, a 20 percent increase since fiscal year 2021. Border patrol apprehended a then-record-setting 1.6 million migrants in 2021. Many of those encountered at the border have been released into the interior and sent to Florida on more than 70 different planes.
The midterm election is in 26 days. Johnson is leading opponent Barnes in recent polling by six points and has momentum.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.