Biden’s call on Friendship Park wall spurs local Dems’ ire

The Biden administration had a symbolic choice and it made the wrong one.

The decision to erect a 30-foot fence on the border with Mexico at Friendship Park continues the president’s shift to tougher immigration policies.

President Joe Biden has come to embrace what was the visual centerpiece of Donald Trump’s border policies that Biden and other Democrats once demonized, laying bare the administration’s awkward gyrations in the face of political pressure.

But instead of putting the huge fence at San Diego’s comparatively quiet halfacre expanse along the southwestern border, the Biden administration could had taken different tack to present a distinction from Trump’s approach.

The anger expressed locally by some Democrats over the fence, and by others in Washington over Biden’s Trump-like restrictive asylum policy, took on an even harder edge than their previous rhetoric directed at Trump. That’s understandable. Such policies were expected from Trump, not their ally Biden, whose administration pledged to go in a much different direction than his predecessor on immigration.

“He betrayed us,” Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, said last week, specifically referring to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s top official overseeing border policies. Kate Morrissey of The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Vargas went so far as to suggest he might join a possible attempt to impeach Mayorkas by Republicans, who blame the secretary for not doing enough to stem migration into the U.S.

Andrea Flores, a former Biden White House official who now serves as chief counsel for Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is among Democrats who have offered searing criticism of current border policies.

The administration “normalizes the White nationalist belief that asylum seekers from certain countries are less deserving of human protections,” Flores told Politico last month.

The issue at Friendship Park really isn’t about a fence, but what kind of fence. Yes, some advocates don’t think there should be any kind of barrier there, but that’s in an ideal world and not the one we currently live in. Various kinds of fences have separated the United States and Mexico at the park for many years.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say the existing fences are deteriorating and need to be replaced. But in that particular area, they don’t need to be

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the huge Trump fence with all the symbolism that comes with it.

Friendship Park is a unique spot along the border with its own historic symbolism of binational unity and should be treated as such. Surely something less imposing could have been designed that is both secure and acknowledges the specialness of place.

That might require a little more effort, but it would be worthwhile — and not just for the locals on both sides of the border who have a deep appreciation of Friendship Park.

It’s been said before, but that could make for a different kind of symbol — one that emphasizes enforcement and positive crossborder interactions.

But, clearly, the former won out, even though the new fence is expected to have a gate. That has been a feature of the existing fence system. The gate, controlled by the Border Patrol, allows entry to a common meeting space but hasn’t been opened for years.

The Biden administration had been coming under heavy fire from Republicans over increased illegal crossings along the length of the border. Some Democrats urged stronger action to bring more order to the border and calm to the political climate.

In January, a Gallup poll said Americans’ satisfaction with the level of immigration into the U.S. was just 28 percent, down 6 percentage points from a year earlier. That was the lowest reading in a decade recorded by Gallup.

The organization noted that gauge was actually lower in 2007 and 2008, at 23 percent and 24 percent, respectively. In 2017-18, Gallup surveyed the highest satisfaction at 41 percent. The latest poll, released Feb. 13, was conducted Jan. 2-22.

The poll was part of Gallup’s annual Mood of the Nation survey. The current mood on immigration may not appear so good, but it’s not out of line with public views on other important topics.

For example, Gallup reported that 29 percent of those polled were satisfied with the quality of public

education. The satisfaction barometer was 27 percent regarding policies to reduce or control crime, 15 percent on efforts to address poverty and 14 percent for the nation’s campaign finance laws.

The Biden administration has been increasingly active on border policy. In February, officials proposed a rule that would bar migrants from applying for asylum if they cross the border illegally after failing to seek “safe harbor” in another country. This is similar to Trump’s asylum policy.

The rule would go into effect in May. That coincides with the expiration of Title 42, the controversial public health order that has barred entry to most migrants.

The Biden administration has sought to end Title 42, but conversely, tried to extend its use as a means to manage the border. Trump invoked the COVID-19 outbreak as rationale for implementing Title 42, but some migrant advocates said then it was a pretext for blocking people from seeking asylum — an argument made stronger by the waning pandemic.

Administration officials say there are limited exceptions to the pending asylum policy. That could help the Biden rule pass legal tests that the Trump policy failed.

Administration officials say their overall policy changes since last year have been effective and are responsible for a decrease in people trying to cross the border. According to Customs and Border Protection, enforcement encounters went from 251,995 in December to 154,998 in February.

Along with the restrictions, Biden has done several things to facilitate legal migration, from ending travel bans from certain countries to granting more visas to ending prohibitions on nonessential travel from Mexico and Canada enacted during the pandemic. He has expanded some humanitarian programs abroad and for migrants in the U.S.

Unlike Trump, Biden’s rhetoric has been welcoming and compassionate toward migrants. But in San Diego’s corner of the world, he could have done something relatively simple to try to preserve that tone, if not the reality, at Friendship Park.