If Biden hopes to repair the damage his lackadaisical approach to immigration enforcement has done to his and his party’s brand, he had better get moving.
If Biden hopes to repair the damage his lackadaisical approach to immigration enforcement has done to his and his party’s brand, he had better get moving.
J oe Biden made news this week when he reveled in a pre-recorded interview with Univision that he may soon issue an executive order aimed at limiting the number of asylum seekers who can remain in the United States legally after crossing the southern border. Or, rather, that would have been a newsworthy revelation had the White House not spent the last two months telegraphing Biden’s intention to do just that — an intent with which Biden never follows through.
As far back as the first week in February, not long after a Senate-brokered deal on enhanced border security collapsed, the Biden administration began telling reporters it may have to address the migrant crisis on its own terms through “executive action to deter illegal migration.” By early March, it became clear what form that executive action would take. As NBC News reported at the time, the president intended to “make it harder for migrants to pass initial screening for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and quickly deport recently arrived migrants who don’t meet the criteria.”
That action would rely on the president’s existing authority in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the president to bolster the “credible fear” standard invoked by asylum seekers so it approximates something resembling, well, credible fear. “He’d be taking a page from former President Trump, who has repeatedly leaned on that section,” an Axios report on the president’s most recent remarks read. Indeed. And while mimicking the former president’s more active approach to border enforcement would surely help Biden navigate the crisis over which he has presided, Democrats hope the maneuver helps them pin the blame for the migrant influx on the GOP.
According to a report in Punchbowl News, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee–commissioned poll of voters in 63 competitive House districts has convinced the party’s strategists that savvy Democratic candidates might be able to turn their immigration weaknesses into strengths. That poll found that voters in those districts were more likely to support Democrats who back stricter border enforcement and statutory reforms to immigration law over Republicans who support a border wall and mass deportations. As Puck notes, the poll’s findings are supported by the electoral model pioneered by Democrat Tom Suozzi, who ran as a border hawk and emerged victorious in a February special election in New York.
Not only does the poll provide a road map for Democratic candidates who can credibly claim to support stricter border policies, it has convinced Democrats that they have a winning issue in a failed bipartisan Senate border-security bill. “House Democrats see a path to victory by slamming Republicans for blowing up the bipartisan Senate immigration and border security deal earlier this year,” Punchbowl reported.
If Biden finally pulls the trigger on an executive action tightening asylum law, that maneuver should be understood as one pincer in the Democratic Party’s forthcoming offensive on immigration. The language reporters have used to describe the action the president may soon take seems to have been lifted directly from the Senate supplemental’s provisions. While the authority that allows Biden to tighten asylum criteria can be found in existing legislation, it would be nice if those criteria didn’t change from one administration to the next. That, among other aspects of the bill, was the Senate supplemental’s value proposition. Democrats can accurately claim that they consented to an enforcement-only bill and that the GOP rejected it, but that alone is unlikely to erase voters’ impression that the Democratic Party is dovish when it comes to the border.
The DCCC’s poll contributes to a mountain of evidence indicating that Biden will have to do something about the border — and soon. Also this week, an Axios-Ipsos Latino Poll found that Donald Trump’s “calls for more border security — and perhaps his anti-immigrant rhetoric” are winning converts to his cause. Not only do the voters who traditionally gravitate to Trump’s camp respond to his hawkish border policies, so too do American Hispanics.
That poll found that 42 percent of self-described Latinos support the construction of additional border barriers — a “12-point jump from December 2021.” It found that the number of Hispanics who support deporting recent migrants back to their countries of origin increased by ten points in the same period to 38 percent. “In addition, 64% of Latinos said they support giving the president the authority to shut U.S. borders if there are too many immigrants trying to enter the country,” Axios reported.
The data differ depending on the respondent’s nationality. Mexican Americans are less supportive of a border wall than those of Central American descent, for example. Cuban Americans are by far the most hawkish when it comes to the border. Additionally, most Hispanics of all origins continue to support a pathway to citizenship for America’s illegal residents, and nearly 60 percent of Latinos surveyed support asylum laws that allow most Latin Americans to seek refuge in the United States. Nevertheless, the poll adds to the impression that Hispanic Americans, like all other Americans, are increasingly open to hawkish immigration policies.
All the polling and the analysis from Democratic sources suggest the party in control of the White House is about to give itself a makeover. Democrats will attempt to convince voters that theirs is the party of border enforcement — the smart, tailored sort, not the recklessness retailed by Trump, whose “racist criticisms of immigrants are raising concerns about violence during the 2024 campaign,” Axios inserted awkwardly into its report on the number of Hispanics warming to the former president.
It’s probably a matter of time before Biden is convinced to follow suit. But if he hopes to repair the damage his lackadaisical approach to immigration enforcement has done to his and his party’s brand, he had better get moving. The polling suggests voters’ views are hardening fast. When they do, no executive order will convince voters to forget the last three years of chaos along the southern border.