Biden’s losing trifecta
Poor polls amid border tensions and debt default risk
President Joe Biden was accused of laying out a welcome mat for illegal migrants at the start of a crunch week for border security and the US economy as he recorded the lowest poll ratings of his presidency.
Mr Biden is ending pandemic restrictions on asylumseekers crossing from Mexico on Thursday, prompting Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, to deploy more National Guard troops and increase state penalties for illegal entry.
Mr Biden will also host talks in Washington on Tuesday (local time) over a stand-off with Republicans on raising the debt ceiling for public borrowing, under threat of a damaging default. Republican leaders in Congress are demanding long-term budget cuts as the price of agreement, turning the annual ritual of passing debt limits into a highstakes showdown.
Just two weeks into Mr Biden’s campaign for re-election, the two challenges of the border and the economy are threatening to damage further his weak approval of 36 per cent in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, the lowest level of his presidency yet recorded by the organisations.
The challenge of resolving the borrowing impasse was shown by the polling answer on the crucial issue of the economy, so often the decisive factor with American voters.
By 54 to 36 per cent, Americans said Mr Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump did a better job on the economy.
The battle is testing Mr Biden at the same time that another long-running issue reaches a pivotal moment – he is finally lifting pandemic restrictions on migrant entry under Title 42 of the US legal code. This was a public health measure brought in by Mr Trump in March 2020 to block asylum-seekers coming from areas with high levels of disease, namely Covid-19.
“President Biden is laying down a welcome mat to people across the entire world, saying that the United States border is wide open,” Mr Abbott said. “It will lead to an incredible amount of people coming across the border illegally. President Biden’s open-border policy is going to cause a catastrophic disaster.”
The change will mean that all eligible migrants claiming asylum at a US border crossing will have to be admitted and processed.
Mr Biden has announced the deployment of 1500 troops to the Mexico border as administrative back-up to border patrol agents who have already been dealing with migrants on a similar scale to last year’s record-breaking 2.4 million encounters. Mr Abbott meanwhile announced a new National Guard unit called the Texas Tactical Border Force would be sent to turn migrants away unless they go to legal crossing points.
“They will be deployed to hot spots along the border to intercept to repel and to turn back migrants who are trying to enter Texas illegally,” he said.