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This disaster is catching up with the president. The January Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that immigration is the No. 1 issue for voters, ahead of inflation, jobs, crime, health care and others. The reason is that Republican governors such as Greg Abbott (Tex.) have nationalized the problem by sending migrants who crossed the border illegally to Democrat-led cities such as Chicago and New York. “Once migrants started to show up in the cities, once budgets started to get stretched … once urban mayors raised alarm flags, this became an issue of concern to the national public,” says Mark Penn, co-founder of the Harvard-Harris poll.
Not only has the issue risen in importance, according to a recent Fox News poll Democrats are also completely out of step with the American people on illegal immigration: 67 percent of all voters said they want to deport those who are here illegally, 58 percent want to use the military to stop illegal immigration and 54 percent want to build a border wall. And according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, voters say they trust Trump over Biden to do a better job on immigration by 12 points.
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This should come as no surprise. Americans are tired of seeing children kicked out of classrooms and recreation facilities so they can be turned into temporary migrant shelters. They are sick of having their tax dollars used to house migrants in luxury hotels, only to see five of them alleged to have beaten up New York police officers and then get released without bail. They are done with the surge of deadly fentanyl that is crossing our borders. And they blame Biden for the calamities befalling their communities.
All these facts undermine the chances of a weak border deal passing Congress. First, Republicans have little incentive to let Biden off the hook for his failed border policies a few months before voters go to the polls to render judgment on his leadership. For three years, Biden has demonized them on immigration while presiding over an unprecedented border debacle. Why provide him with last-minute cover if the deal does not actually solve the problems he created?
Second, Republicans are rightly skeptical that Biden actually wants to secure the border. At the same time that Biden promises that if Congress passes the deal, he’ll “shut down the border tomorrow,” he’s pushing Texas to cut razor wire that it put up to secure the border. If he really wants to detain migrants, why is he leaving thousands of detention beds empty in facilities across the country? And why is he abusing parole authority and not deporting those who enter the country illegally the way President Barack Obama did?
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The fact is, if Biden really wanted to shut down the border, he could today. The same laws are on the books today that were there when Obama and Trump got the border under control. If we had a president who was using all the immigration laws on the books and needed extra authorities, that would be one thing. But Biden is choosing not to enforce the law.
So, any deal that Republicans reach needs to force Biden to take steps that will cause some in his party to balk — such as funding and expediting the construction of the same amount of border wall that Trump proposed; reinstating the policy requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated; barring applications for asylum for those who have transited through a safe third country; and deporting the millions of migrants who are here unlawfully. What would Democrats get in return? The ability to plausibly tell fed-up voters they’re finally getting serious about trying to solve the No. 1 problem voters say they care about.
And if Biden won’t do these things, it will be clear that he doesn’t want to stop illegal immigration. He only wants to stop Trump from entering the Oval Office again.
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Although the specifics of the border agreement being negotiated by Senate Republicans and the Biden administration have not yet been released, this much is certain: There’s no excuse for a weak deal. The border crisis could cost Democrats this year’s election and put Donald Trump in the White House — and Democrats know it. That means Republicans have all the leverage in these negotiations.
And it explains why so many GOP skeptics are unwilling to go along with major concessions.
Every year of his presidency, Biden has broken the record for most encounters at the southern border. In fiscal 2021, there were 1.73 million encounters, which was a record until fiscal 2022, when the number rose to 2.37 million, which was a record until fiscal 2023, when there were 2.47 million encounters. And that does not include 1.7 million known “gotaways” who have evaded apprehension during Biden’s presidency.
If you’re Joe Biden and you know that illegal immigration propelled Trump into the White House in 2016, why, on winning the presidency, would you proceed to unleash the worst border crisis in American history? It boggles the mind.
This disaster is catching up with the president. The January Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that immigration is the No. 1 issue for voters, ahead of inflation, jobs, crime, health care and others. The reason is that Republican governors such as Greg Abbott (Tex.) have nationalized the problem by sending migrants who crossed the border illegally to Democrat-led cities such as Chicago and New York. “Once migrants started to show up in the cities, once budgets started to get stretched … once urban mayors raised alarm flags, this became an issue of concern to the national public,” says Mark Penn, co-founder of the Harvard-Harris poll.
Not only has the issue risen in importance, according to a recent Fox News poll Democrats are also completely out of step with the American people on illegal immigration: 67 percent of all voters said they want to deport those who are here illegally, 58 percent want to use the military to stop illegal immigration and 54 percent want to build a border wall. And according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, voters say they trust Trump over Biden to do a better job on immigration by 12 points.
This should come as no surprise. Americans are tired of seeing children kicked out of classrooms and recreation facilities so they can be turned into temporary migrant shelters. They are sick of having their tax dollars used to house migrants in luxury hotels, only to see five of them alleged to have beaten up New York police officers and then get released without bail. They are done with the surge of deadly fentanyl that is crossing our borders. And they blame Biden for the calamities befalling their communities.
All these facts undermine the chances of a weak border deal passing Congress. First, Republicans have little incentive to let Biden off the hook for his failed border policies a few months before voters go to the polls to render judgment on his leadership. For three years, Biden has demonized them on immigration while presiding over an unprecedented border debacle. Why provide him with last-minute cover if the deal does not actually solve the problems he created?
Second, Republicans are rightly skeptical that Biden actually wants to secure the border. At the same time that Biden promises that if Congress passes the deal, he’ll “shut down the border tomorrow,” he’s pushing Texas to cut razor wire that it put up to secure the border. If he really wants to detain migrants, why is he leaving thousands of detention beds empty in facilities across the country? And why is he abusing parole authority and not deporting those who enter the country illegally the way President Barack Obama did?
The fact is, if Biden really wanted to shut down the border, he could today. The same laws are on the books today that were there when Obama and Trump got the border under control. If we had a president who was using all the immigration laws on the books and needed extra authorities, that would be one thing. But Biden is choosing not to enforce the law.
So, any deal that Republicans reach needs to force Biden to take steps that will cause some in his party to balk — such as funding and expediting the construction of the same amount of border wall that Trump proposed; reinstating the policy requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated; barring applications for asylum for those who have transited through a safe third country; and deporting the millions of migrants who are here unlawfully. What would Democrats get in return? The ability to plausibly tell fed-up voters they’re finally getting serious about trying to solve the No. 1 problem voters say they care about.
And if Biden won’t do these things, it will be clear that he doesn’t want to stop illegal immigration. He only wants to stop Trump from entering the Oval Office again.
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