An Inconvenient Issue

Biden Ignores Immigration at His Own Risk

With re-election coming up next year, the Biden Administration wants to focus on touting its landmark legislation (the IRA, the CHIPS Act and the Infrastructure Bill) and sell the economic recovery. And probably less of a re-election theme but still a major priority (perhaps the top priority?), the Biden Administration wants to continue prosecuting the U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

What it doesn’t want to do is deal with the massive migrant crisis that is unfolding. I think the White House and Democratic Party generally hope they can just pretend that it is not happening, offer some quiet policy tweaks and rely on a press corps that tilts left and reluctant itself to paint what is happening at the southern border as a crisis lest they come across as racist, xenophobic or Republican.

Nevertheless, the problem persists.

Last year, two million migrants crossed the U.S. border. At the present moment, it looks like September 2023 is going to hit a record high for monthly crossings – with 142,000 migrants crossing in just the first half of the month, setting a pace for a quarter million by month’s end.

My understanding is that most of the migrants cross the border illegally but they then present themselves to border patrol (or are apprehended) and claim asylum. Because of U.S. asylum laws, passed after the horrors of WWII, once someone claims asylum, they get a court date which might be well over a year into the future to evaluate the claim, and while they wait, they can go about the country. This is a process that once worked well, but with millions of people now crossing the border and claiming asylum, it seems a change may be needed.

The fact is, the U.S. is a big country and probably could handle large waves if immigration if processed and administered correctly.

But that is not what is happening here, and the system is buckling. Border states and border communities are overwhelmed with migrants. Blue states and cities, which once openly proclaimed themselves to be sanctuaries, are becoming overwhelmed themselves. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that the state has no more capacity and implored migrants to go somewhere else. In Chicago, the city government is setting up make-shift tent communities on the South Side, pitting working class Black citizens against migrants. It goes on and on. The situation has become untenable and it doesn’t appear the Biden Administration has any plans to do anything about it.

And he does have options. An idea touted by Fareed Zakaria, credit to Nolan Rappaport, is for Biden to “use the power he has in existing law to suspend entirely the admission of asylum seekers while the system digests the millions of immigration cases already pending.” I have no idea what the legality of that is, but if he at least tried it, it would demonstrate to the public that he recognized the crisis and was making an effort. But the Biden Administration, nor the Democratic Party in Washington, are really doing anything.

That is a problem for Biden politically. According to a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll, 60% of the country thinks we are on the wrong track, immigration is the number two issue for voters (if you combine “inflation” and “the economy” as a single issue – if you separate them immigration is number three.) And Biden has a 36% approval for immigration.

Also notable in that poll, 71% of voters say illegal immigration is getting worse and 56% say the Southern border is largely open with laws unenforced.

Those are not good numbers to go into a re-election year with. Especially given that Biden also has a 40% approval rating on foreign affairs, which undermines his Administration’s miscalculation that sending endless arms and money to Ukraine is somehow a strength for him.

It is also not clear to me why the Biden Administration wouldn’t take up this issue as an easy political win. It would likely garner support from most Americans, and the people who would be most upset (liberal activists) tend to live in concentrated “blue” geographies like Manhattan or California – meaning losing some of their votes wouldn’t make the slightest difference.

I suspect it is a mix of political incompetence, the issue not being a high priority, and the influence of very socially liberal, high net-worth donors that have a disproportionate influence on Democratic policy making.

This is also a problem for anyone who cares about immigration and wants to see the issue treated sensibly and humanely. Because the major, obvious risk is that if the Democrats continue to ignore the issue and pretend it’s not a crisis, then they are ceding the ground entirely to demagogues on the right; in this case, Donald Trump.