Biden can’t escape Trump’s shadow in border crisis!


  • by Anthony Zurcher
  • North America correspondent

image Source, getty images

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Migrants have taken over the city of Eagle Pass, Texas in recent weeks

The recent surge of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border has put President Joe Biden in a politically dangerous position.

State and local Democratic leaders, who should be among his closest allies in next year’s presidential election, are sharply critical of his management of immigration. His potential 2024 Republican rival, Donald Trump, is stepping up his attacks on an issue that has been a central part of his political message for nearly a decade. And public support for Mr Biden on the situation is deteriorating.

While the vote is still more than a year away, the growing immigration crisis — the impact of which is partly being felt thousands of miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border as Republican governors are sending newly arrived migrants to Democratic-run cities – The political pressure on Mr Biden’s popularity and his re-election hopes could be a challenge.

The numbers paint a bleak picture. US Border Patrol caught nearly 210,000 undocumented migrants entering the US during the month of September, according to preliminary US Department of Homeland Security data obtained by BBC partner CBS News. This is the highest mark of the year, and equal to the record peak of monthly apprehensions in late 2022.

If the Biden administration thinks the crisis at the border is waning and national attention is shifting toward other issues following a shift in government policy earlier this year, the latest surge should dispel that notion.

Furthermore, the nature of the immigrant surge suggests that there is no end in sight. Nearly a quarter of those apprehended at the border last month were citizens of Venezuela, the South American nation that is struggling with political and economic difficulties under the socialist dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro.

The Venezuelan exodus has created a refugee crisis in the hemisphere, with more than seven million people fleeing the country – and the consequences are increasingly being felt on American soil.

According to the Panamanian government, more than 150,000 Venezuelans have crossed the Darien Gap in Central America toward North America in the past two months.

“People don’t and won’t leave their homes just for the sake of it,” Janet Napolitano, the head of Homeland Security during the Obama administration, told the BBC. “They are generally in extreme distress – poverty, unemployment, high crime, violence, lack of civil institutions in their countries of origin.”

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A US border guard keeps track of migrants entering the US

On Thursday, the Biden administration announced two new steps to address the dramatic increase — and both have opened the president up to attacks from across the political spectrum. The President issued a series of environmental and planning waivers and released funding to build additional sections of wall along the US-Mexico border.

He also revealed that the US would resume direct deportations of Venezuelan citizens – a practice that had been suspended due to strained diplomatic relations between the two countries.

These new measures were criticized less by immigration radicals and more by leftist immigration activists. The President’s vague explanations – that he still believed walls did not work and that it was money Congress had forced him to spend – further complicated the situation.

The Venezuelan announcement also represents a change in the administration’s attitude, following last month’s move to allow nearly half a million Venezuelan refugees in the US to apply for work permits and avoid deportation for 18 months.

In trying to calm concerns that he is not doing enough to address border growth while keeping his liberal supporters happy, he is satisfying no one — a puzzle that faces the Biden presidency. Border policy has come up again and again during this period.

Immigration has become a highly polarizing issue, due to Mr. Trump’s “build the wall” rhetoric and sometimes harsh policies during his presidency. This has greatly reduced Mr Biden’s political flexibility in dealing with crises.

image Source, getty images

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There was an anti-immigration protest in New York last month

While Barack Obama was able to increase deportations and strengthen border security during his presidency without facing backlash from liberal activists, Mr. Biden has no such luxury. Every move he has taken on immigration is now viewed in the context of the current climate of partisan political trench warfare, with Mr. Trump and Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other.

Meanwhile, recent polling shows that in that partisan fight, the public is leaning on the president.

A new Marquette University survey of registered voters asked respondents to choose who was “better” on the issue of immigration and border security, the current president or the person he replaced. Fifty-two percent said they liked Mr. Trump, while only 28% chose Mr. Biden.

It ties the economy for the biggest issue gap between the two candidates and contrasts with topics like abortion and climate change, where Mr Biden has a solid lead.

Those results were mirrored in an NBC News poll, which found that 45% of Americans thought Republicans were better at handling immigration, compared to only 27% for Democrats. This represents a marked change from the Trump presidency, when a plurality of the American public preferred Democrats.

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Other presidents got money for border barriers – why not Trump?

The constant buzz of troubling news from the border, as well as the pressure on public services in major US cities where migrants are settling, is having a noticeable impact on public opinion.

And if the crisis does not subside before the start of the 2024 general election campaign, the President will face his Republican rival in hostile political territory.

According to Ms. Napolitano, the Biden team will have to make a concerted effort to solve the immigration crisis.

“It requires diplomatic outreach,” she says. “It requires investment in other countries so we can have some incentives for migration. And it requires strong border security and effective enforcement of our immigration laws.” There is a need, which requires amendment and improvement.”

In the end, the criticism Mr. Biden receives this week for his actions on immigration will be much less important than whether or not the new policies work. If he doesn’t do so, and if other steps by the Biden administration to stem the flow of migrants from Venezuela and elsewhere also fail, his path to re-election becomes more perilous.


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