Texas Progressives want Section 42 to end, highlighting the wide ideological gulf in the Congressional immigration deal.

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WASHINGTON. Rep. Greg Kasar of Austin helped lead a group of progressive Democrats in a scathing denunciation of President Joe Biden for extending border provisions inherited from the Trump administration, highlighting a wide ideological chasm in Congress as lawmakers look to find a bipartisan path. forward to guard the border.

In a letter to the White House, Casar and other progressives disagreed with the administration’s plan to continue Section 42, a provision under which asylum seekers are expelled on the pretext of stopping the spread of COVID-19.

“Last year, we welcomed your administration’s announcement that it would move on to repeal Section 42, and we continue to support your efforts in the courts to ensure the policy is repealed in a timely manner,” the members wrote. “Therefore, we are saddened by the highly inconsistent decision to extend restrictions on asylum seekers after your administration decided it was no longer necessary for public health.”

Earlier this month, Biden expanded Section 42, merging it with a set of new legal immigration routes for selected countries as a temporary measure to deal with the spike in border crossings with Mexico. Progressives called the plan a betrayal of Biden’s campaign promise to end Trump’s border policy.

This letter is the latest in a series of proposals and demands made by members of Congress as lawmakers once again struggle to pass comprehensive immigration legislation.

[Here’s what you need to know about Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that quickly sends migrants to Mexico]

And the Section 42 issue demonstrates how ideologically apart the Congresses are on issues of border security and immigration. Many Republicans, including Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, are demanding some kind of provision for either expulsion or detention of asylum seekers. Democrats, meanwhile, want to focus on providing more legal immigration routes to the US, as well as diplomacy in countries of origin.

More than 70 members of the House and Senate signed a letter calling on Biden to repeal Section 42, including Representatives Silvia R. Garcia, D-Houston, and Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio.

Comprehensive border and immigration legislation has eluded Congress for decades. Both Casar and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a co-author of the letter, mentioned on Thursday that they weren’t even alive when Congress passed a major immigration bill last.

A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators led by Senator Kirsten Sinema of Arizona and Tom Tillis of North Carolina began talks last December to increase border security funding and provide some legal protection for migrants who arrived as children.

Senate talks included extending Section 42. But while protecting arriving children is a key priority for Democrats, Casar was adamant in his opposition to the pandemic clause during a press conference outside the Capitol on Thursday. However, his spokesman kept the door open to listen to suggestions.

“We know this Section 42 expansion is ultimately a response to political attacks, lies and cynicism from the Republican far right who don’t really want to address this issue,” Casar said.

Instead, Casar stressed the need to invest in stabilizing asylum seekers’ countries of origin and opening up more legal routes to enter the United States. While he praised the Biden administration for including new options in its border announcement earlier this month, he criticized entry requirements that could make the new paths financially prohibitive for some of the most vulnerable migrants. Under this scheme, citizens of Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua can apply for special visas in their countries if they have a sponsor in the United States.

On the opposite side of the political spectrum, a few deeply conservative Republicans, led by Roy, continue to push their own border security bill, which would allow the secretary of homeland security to block all new entries until the administration can detain asylum seekers and anyone who crosses the border illegally. Once the capacity of the detainees is reached, the migrants will be refused at the border.

A wide range of ideas could chill the hope that Congress will be a breakthrough that will solve the immigration mystery. Sen. John Cornyn and Cinema led a bipartisan group of senators to the border earlier this month to reopen serious discussions and find a deal in good faith on the issue. Cornyn expressed optimism that the bipartisan momentum from the latest Congress’s landmark gun control and competitiveness bills with China could be carried over to the passage of border and immigration law.

But speaking to reporters on Thursday, Cornyn admitted that it could be “a triumph of hope over experience.”

“In my opinion, we have never failed when it comes to border security and immigration,” Kornin said. “I am an optimist by nature. I see the glass as half full, not half empty.”