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By Dallas Morning News Editorial

Congress, this one is on you … again.

U.S. immigration policy has been badly broken for more than two decades. Attempts by former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama to craft reasonable, sweeping immigration policies stalled, then cratered under the weight of partisan opposition in Congress from the party not in the White House.

Our immigration system is no longer just broken and messy. It’s now dangerously dysfunctional, as Congress repeatedly proves the adage that if you aren’t part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem. Privately, lawmakers may agree that immigration policy isn’t working. But if they are truly serious about reform, then they should take a look at the bipartisan Dignity Act of 2023.

Introduced by U.S. Reps. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat, and María Elvira Salazar, a Florida Republican, the bill is a comprehensive attempt to strengthen border security, as well as provide legal status for immigrants illegally in the United States, including Dreamers, and pathways for asylum seekers. Most of all, it acknowledges that a functioning immigration policy must secure borders and provide legal opportunities for families to seek refuge in the United States.

The bill, for example, would authorize at least $25 billion in funding to upgrade infrastructure and technology along the border and at ports of entry, establish processing facilities along the southern border to adjudicate asylum claims and create facilities in Latin America for in-country processing to pre-screened applicants who wish to obtain guest-worker visas or pursue other legal pathways.

It also would offer a long-term legal path to people with doctoral degrees in STEM fields and mandate E-Verify for employers. Other provisions would allow young immigrants who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children to obtain legal status under certain conditions.

Congress last passed immigration reform in 1996, when Republicans controlled both the House and Senate and President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, sat in the White House. But Congress has done virtually nothing to update immigration laws and unceremoniously derailed subsequent efforts in a mushroom cloud of inflammatory red herrings, distortions and partisan political agendas.

The Dignity Act could be a path forward, but more likely it will be seized upon as an opportunity for craven politicians from both parties to demagogue the issue as the nation approaches a presidential election contest next year. Bills like this separate the show horses from the workhorses who present an opportunity to reform immigration policy. If the show horses win, however, Congress would have chosen politics over substance once again.

Congress’ serial failures to act have had and continue to have real consequences. The nation’s border chaos, labor shortages and potential national security vulnerabilities are some of a long list of adverse impacts tied to congressional inaction. And into that abyss are unwieldy, ad hoc emergency presidential edicts, dueling federal court decisions and stop-gap state efforts to police the borders that amount to inadequate makeshift tourniquets on a gushing wound.

If anyone thinks these are viable substitutes for a thoughtful congressional action, then they haven’t been paying attention or are benefiting from the chaos.

Our national policy must balance border security while offering migrants a path to legal status and a future in this country. And it must happen now.