Biden’s border mess
DECISION-MAKERS DON’T AGREE ON WHAT SHOULD BE DONE. NEITHER DO VOTERS
If U.S. President Joe Biden loses his bid for re-election in November, it’s unlikely to be one specific weakness that did him in. From cognitive decline to inflation, the incumbent raises red flags among voters in a host of ways. But an issue where he might improve his standing is one over which he has some actual control: border policy.
Unfortunately, while Americans are horrified by the mess at the southern border, decision-makers in the Biden administration don’t agree on what should be done. Neither do voters.
For some time, there has been a steady flow of migrants coming across the southern border without legal authorization. In January, the United States Border Patrol reported “124,220 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border.”
That was down by 50 per cent from the previous month’s record high, but crossings always drop in colder months before picking up again (by about 40 per cent between January and March in recent years). This suggests we’re seeing a brief respite before refugees and those seeking opportunity again overwhelm border communities and inland social services, as governors of border states increasingly bus migrants to other parts of the country.
Polling released this month by Pew Research finds that “80 per cent say the U.S. government is doing a bad job handling the migrant influx” at the southern border. More than three-quarters of respondents say the flow of unauthorized border-crossers is a crisis (45 per cent) or a major problem (32 per cent).
If you’re a remarkably unpopular president named Joe Biden, this is especially bad news. The president is the head of the executive branch of government that enforces federal laws, and national borders fall under federal purview. Dissatisfaction with border policy reflects on Biden. Immigration is the “single most often-mentioned factor” among those who disapprove of the president’s performance in office, according to Gallup.
The president should therefore be doing something to win back that unhappy 80 per cent, right? Well, perhaps a president with a firmer grip might settle on a response. But Biden is infamously not at the top of his game anymore, and his aides and other officials want nothing to do with the issue.
“Many administration leaders treated the issue like a hot potato because it was politically thankless,” Axios reported earlier this month about the Biden administration’s squabbling over border policy.
Vice-president Kamala Harris, who had very publicly been assigned the role of investigating the causes of the border influx, was described by a former White House official as “at best ineffective, and at worst sporadically engaged.” Worse, the administration is ideologically divided between border hawks and those who want to ease immigration.
That’s left the federal government paralyzed and unresponsive to both the cross-border influx and the public dissatisfaction over it. It’s a vacuum that state governments are trying to fill.
Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced plans to build a National Guard base housing state troops dedicated to border enforcement. It’s an extension of Operation Lone Star, under which Texas has unilaterally assumed responsibility for addressing the migrant influx.
The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the federal government to cut razor wire strung by Texas, but that hasn’t prevented the state from putting up other barriers, or from flexing its constitutionally iffy enforcement muscles.
“The federal government has broken the compact between the United States and the states. The executive branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting states, including immigration laws on the books right now. President Biden has refused to enforce those laws and has even violated them,” Gov. Abbott proclaimed last month.
“The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety and other Texas personnel are acting ... to secure the Texas border.”
Other Republican-led states have also pledged troops and resources to the effort, in what’s less a new civil war than a relegation of the federal government to irrelevance.
As the occasionally effective legislative branch of government, Congress had the chance to address the border mess. The Senate cooked up a bipartisan compromise package of border policies and foreign aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine. It failed. Frankly, like much legislation these days, it probably would have accomplished more in terms of the appearance of progress than actual substance.
“The bill is a mixed bag,” David J. Bier wrote for the libertarian Cato Institute. “In general, the main purpose of the bill is to spend tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on detaining and deporting more immigrants from the border rather than finding ways to let them come legally.” He did, however, note that the bill would make “legal immigration slightly easier for some groups.”
This wouldn’t be all that helpful. The problem is that, in an increasingly chaotic world where, for example, the socialist government of Venezuela has turned a previously prosperous country into a repressive hellhole, many people are seeking shelter and refuge in the United States.
As Bier, an immigration policy expert, pointed out in a report published last June, the U.S. has closed off nearly all paths to legal immigration. “Today, fewer than one per cent of people who want to move permanently to the United States can do so legally,” he wrote.
Even qualified refugees, such as those fleeing Venezuela, have less than a 0.1 per cent chance of being approved for resettlement. As history demonstrates, if you cut off legal means for people to do what’s important to them, they’ll find illegal means. That includes migrating in search of safety and prosperity.
But while Democrats (73 per cent) and Republicans (89 per cent) alike are unhappy with current immigration policies, they’re unhappy in different ways. Pew found that 72 per cent of Republicans want to expand the wall on the Mexican border, emphasizing enforcement, while 69 per cent of Democrats favour easing legal immigration.
There’s some agreement on more judges to process asylum applications, but that’s not likely to make a dramatic difference. In truth, around 43 per cent of GOP voters are also open to more legal migrants. But administration officials are ideologically divided on the issue, with no adult guidance from the White House.
That leaves a federal government that doesn’t know what it wants battling hawkish state officials. It’s a recipe for paralysis, an ongoing border crisis and more headlines to come.
BIDEN IS INFAMOUSLY NOT AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME ANYMORE.