Border: Can Biden slow the migrant surge?

After Republicans killed a bipartisan Senate border bill last week, they insisted President Biden could curb illegal immigration through executive action, said John B. Judis in The New York Times. For the sake of the country, and his electoral chances, Biden should start using those powers. The 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act says the president can “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens” if it “would be detrimental” to U.S. interests. Well, the roughly 2.5 million undocumented migrants who entered the U.S. last year have imposed “a tremendous fiscal burden,” and damaged the U.S.’s image “as a nation of enforceable laws.” To stem the flood, Biden can require that asylum seekers apply only at official ports of entry, turning back those who cross elsewhere. He can also tighten rules on who can apply for asylum and end the liberal use of so-called parole to admit whole of classes of people from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and elsewhere. Our overwhelmed nation needs these fixes now, and they “could help Biden and the Democrats in November.”

Biden has vowed “to make Republicans pay politically for torpedoing” the border deal, said Jennifer Haberkorn and Sam Stein in Politico. Long on the defensive over the migrant crisis, he’s now blasting his likely election opponent Donald Trump for masterminding the bill’s demise so he can “keep the border as an active campaign issue.” But it may be an uphill battle. In a new ABC News/ Ipsos poll, 49 percent blamed Biden for the bill’s failure, and only 39 percent blamed Trump. Biden is reaping what he sowed, said Jeremiah Poff in the Washington Examiner. He spent three years unwinding Trump-era rules to appease “his leftwing base’s desire for open borders.” With an election looming, he’s now trying to dodge blame for the “catastrophic” results, but voters know better.

“The most explosive immigration clash of all may still lie ahead,” said Ronald Brownstein in The Atlantic. If re-elected, Trump is promising a massdeportation campaign. His aide Stephen Miller says they’re planning large-scale raids to remove up to 10 million “invaders.” In addition to border agents, they plan to use National Guard troops, potentially pulling them from “sympathetic” red states and sending them into Democratic-run cities. “These plans could produce scenes in American communities unmatched in our history,” sowing chaos, fear, and even showdowns between Trump’s enforcers and blue-city police. If today’s immigration disputes seem fraught, just wait.