The small town where Ds and Rs have found a way to make immigration work

One of the reasons that I chose to put Harrisonburg, Va., on my list of towns to visit in this election cycle is that for over 20 years, it has been a refugee resettlement location and I expected this to be a matter of some controversy.

But once there, I found something different and rare: a near consensus that the system is not only working, but that the residents are proud of it.

The first Republican who I asked about the program has been a local resident for decades, is a big fan of Gov. Glenn Youngkin and has hired some of the refugees over the years.

IN ONE SMALL TOWN, CRITICS AND SUPPORTERS ALIKE ASK, WHO IS KAMALA HARRIS?

"It’s well organized," she told me. "It's a process. First temporary housing, then a job, then more permanent housing, and these folks become good members of the community."

Jeff, who runs musical events in the area, agreed. He graduated from Harrisonburg High School in the 80s, and after living in Hawaii for several decades, moved back.

"When I took my daughter to the high school, there were like a hundred flags in the cafeteria, and they were for every language that had been spoken in the school," he told me. 

When I suggested that this must be a strain on local resources, Jeff acknowledged that it is but said, "it's all planned for, it's not haphazard." 

Another man I spoke with, this time a Kamala Harris supporter, concurred. "We are proud of it," he told me.

It is important to understand that Harrisonburg has, for the most part, been taking in people who fit a traditional definition of refugee, including many from Iraq and Afghanistan. They were escaping war, and were not economic immigrants being falsely labeled as asylum seekers by the Biden administration.

The attitude of Harrisonburg to its role as an immigrant refuge displays an important nuance within the raging and often volatile arguments about immigration and the border. Very few people are flat out against immigration. Even Donald Trump extols the virtue of new arrivals when it is done in the right way.

This is the same attitude that I found in Del Rio, Texas, which bears so much of the brunt of our broken border system. Not only were many of the border agents I spoke with of Mexican descent, they openly told me their parents or grandparents had come illegally. They don’t hate illegal immigrants, they just want a clear system to enforce.

American voters by and large are not anti-immigrant. They are frustrated by an immigration system that simply pushes people off of a bus in New York City or somewhere and throws them in a hotel and says, "Go figure it out." 

They also understand the danger of an immigration system that creates isolated communities which do not lead to assimilation, but rather Balkanization. In Harrisonburg, and places like it, the good old-fashioned melting pot is still bubbling.

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And therein lies an opportunity for both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, if either chooses to take it. A positive case for orderly, lawful immigration, even at relatively high levels, is a widely popular and unifying policy. 

Trump can put points on the board by correctly noting that the Biden-Harris open border policy has been a debacle. Harris can win votes by calling Trump and his supporters anti-immigrant racists. But with positive and practical immigration solutions, both can reach a much broader range of voters.

Americans are good people, welcoming people. They want to help. They want our nation to remain the shining city upon a hill, but they want it done in a way that is well organized. As Jeff put it to me, "Are we really helping these illegal immigrants if we don’t have a system in place? Or are we setting them up for failure?"

In a nation as divided as ours, it is worth paying attention when people on both sides agree on something. I wasn’t expecting to find that in Harrisonburg, but as always, this land of ours is full of wonderful surprises. 

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