Nowhere Left to Go: Biden Has No Clear Way Forward on Immigration

A border agent attempts to apprehend a Haitian migrant at the southern border. Source: Washington Post

Following the release of images and videos of mounted border agents preventing Haitian migrants from entering the country, Biden has faced growing opposition to his immigration policy within his own party — in addition to the ever-present vitriol spouting from Republican officials. During a Senate hearing with the Department of Homeland Security, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) excoriated the Biden Administration’s response to immigration at the southern border: “Sooner or later, this administration is going to have to take responsibility for the crisis you have fomented at the border that gets worse day upon day.” It might be a bit of a stretch, however, for Hawley to lay the turmoil in Haiti —  namely the assassination of its President in July, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake in August, and rampant gang violence —  at the feet of the President. 

Yet Biden faces similar censure from members of his own party. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) described the scene at the border as “a stain on our country,” adding that “it doesn’t matter if a Democrat or Republican is President, our immigration system is designed for cruelty towards and dehumanization of immigrants.” Ocasio-Cortez’s comments echoed sentiments expressed by NAACP President Derrick Johnson: “The humanitarian crisis happening under this administration on the southern border mirrors some of the darkest moments in America’s history.” The NAACP also tweeted an image of a border agent apprehending a migrant alongside an image of a white man about to strike an enslaved black man.

While the desperate situation at the border should be cause for concern, the comparison of said situation to chattel slavery in antebellum America is clear evidence that the rhetoric surrounding the issue has become too feverish and partisan to allow for any constructive action on the issue. Biden finds himself in a situation where even a small step in either direction is likely to elicit much more backlash than support. As such, the administration lacks any path forward that can be expected to clear the all-out battleground that the court of public opinion has become. The current climate has many administration officials feeling directionless: “I don’t know what our immigration strategy is at all,” one official confessed. Another said plainly, “I don’t know how much longer I can stay at [the Department of Homeland Security] if this continues.”

While it is politically expedient and given the state of today’s world also quite easy to criticize today’s policy in digestible, easily transmitted sound bites, those eager to lay the blame wholly on Biden must ignore many extenuating factors that influence the President’s decision-making in order to do so. Firstly, the continued persistence of the coronavirus, now in the form of the delta variant, means that an influx of refugees to this country presents a serious threat to public health. Even so, Biden has seriously relaxed pandemic restrictions on immigration: in July 2020, 92 percent of migrant encounters resulted in expulsion. One year later, that number is down to 47 percent. Additionally, Biden faces a particularly large number of Haitian migrants under the false impression that the U.S. will accept them, presenting border agents with a particularly heavy flow of migrants to the border. Even still, of the roughly 14,400 migrants from Haiti, 2,000 have been sent back and 12,400 will be allowed to apply for asylum, normally meaning that they can stay in the U.S. while their cases are processed.

In short, Biden and his administration find themselves in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic, facing an influx of refugees from a country rife with political turmoil, and situated in a political landscape so polarized that one group has compared the actions at the border to chattel slavery, while on the other extreme, Tucker Carlson of Fox News accused Biden of purposefully attempting to change racial demographics in the U.S. through immigration. Democrats should be pleased that Biden has ended the many of the Trump era’s strictest policies, including the Muslim travel ban, and that he has announced that the refugee cap for the next fiscal year will be eight times higher than the previous year. Similarly, Republicans should acknowledge that Biden has taken a considerably less liberal route with the border than their initial accusations claimed he would. Instead, neither side is willing to lay down their arms, and Biden, and comprehensive action on immigration, is ultimately caught in the crossfire.