Biden’s Terrible Immigration Policy

Even good presidents have one area in which they are terrible. For Obama, it was his deep commitment to neoliberalism in education. With Biden, it’s immigration. I’ve defended him to the hilt on labor, leading to many lefty attacks on me. I stand by that. But on immigration, he’s just awful.

In a brief visit to El Paso’s busiest crossing and a migrant services support center, Mr. Biden acceded to demands by Republicans that he make the trip he had not taken for two years.

But as he arrived in El Paso, he found himself under siege from all sides.Democrats and human rights activists condemned his new enforcement plan as a “humanitarian disgrace.” Republicans blasted his delay in coming to a border they say is “wide open” to illegal immigration. And Mexican officials — who are preparing to welcome him to a summit of North American leaders on Monday — warned that his proposals would cross a “red line” for them.

The number of migrants apprehended trying to illegally cross the 2,000-mile border with Mexico has hit record highs. In the 12 months leading up to last October, the Border Patrol encountered 1.7 million migrants trying to cross illegally, the highest number since 1960. Officials said overall crossings had dipped some during the holiday season in December, but they said they expected the numbers to rise again quickly in the coming months.

The surge in migrants has reached deep into the United States. Cities as far away as New York and Washington are struggling to provide services to the growing numbers who are arriving, some at the behest of Republican governors in Florida and Texas, who have bused or flown the migrants out of their states.

In El Paso, a record-breaking swell of migration from across Central and South America has made the city one of the most vivid symbols of the decades-long breakdown in America’s immigration system. Desperate people, often with small children, spend cold nights on park benches, with no legal status and nowhere to go after making the brutally dangerous trek north in the hopes of finding refuge.

The question of what to do with them — Accept them? Detain them? Send them home? — has become one of the most polarized political debates in the United States. And Mr. Biden has not found a solution as the situation in El Paso and communities along the border has worsened during his presidency.

On Sunday, Mr. Biden met with Border Patrol officers, members of Congress and local officials at the Bridge of the Americas Port of Entry, El Paso’s busiest crossing, which is set to receive $600 million from the president’s infrastructure law. He also made an unannounced stop along the 18-foot border wall that separates El Paso from Juárez, Mexico, talking to Border Patrol agents as he strolled along a dirt road on the American side.

Biden choosing to basically accept the Trump framing on immigration is just horrifying. I mean, just listen to Biden’s ridiculousness in his immigration speech.

My message is this: If you’re trying to leave Cuba, Nicaragua, or Haiti, you have — and we — or have agreed to begin a journey to America, do not — do not just show up at the border. Stay where you are and apply legally from there.

Starting today, if you don’t apply through the legal process, you will not be eligible for this new parole program.Let me reiterate: You need a lawful sponsor in the United States of America, number one. And you need to undergo a rigorous background check, number two.

You have got to be kidding me. Biden knows this is stupid too. He knows why people are migrating. But since we need a reminder….

Central Americans asking for protection at the U.S. border often say they’re fleeing ruthless criminal gangs back home. In many places, every type of business — from the ubiquitous corner shops called pulperías, to Super Chicken takeout joints, to the three-wheel tuk-tuk taxis — are expected to pay weekly extortion to gangs as “protection” from rival thugs.

One of the gangsters who collects weekly shakedowns is a slight 25-year-old with hoop earrings, a bright red T-shirt and a child’s bunny-ear backpack. She works for MS-13, one of the largest and deadliest mafias in the Americas. Her nickname is La China; she won’t give her real name or have her picture taken.

“My job is to collect extortion,” she said. “I’ve done this for four years. They have a fixed time to pay. If they delay too long, we kill the person. There are people who refuse to pay the extortion — they say, ‘Oh, we haven’t sold enough!’ — but it’s obligatory. They have to pay, or else.

I can totally see it–Honduran family wants to not die. They have a gun in their mouth. They are ready to flee. Oh but wait, better call that number Joe Biden gave us! The 5 years it will take for anything to happen will certainly save our lives!!!

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is furious, though trying to figure out how to deal with this from their traitorous erstwhile ally and leader that they want to keep happy.

Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.), in her first major statement as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), praised the administration’s expanded legal pathways but expressed disappointment with the Title 42 expansion at the border.

“As a nation of immigrants, we must have a humane, efficient, and professional immigration system that reflects our American values,” Barragán said. “The Congressional Hispanic Caucus welcomes the Administration’s efforts to expand legal pathways for refugees and asylum seekers but is disappointed with the expansion of the failed Trump-era Title 42 policy that has denied asylum seekers their rights to due process for far too long.”

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a former CHC chair, released his own statement later Friday, issuing a strongly worded condemnation of the administration’s plans that contrasted with the careful balance adopted by Barragán.

“I am deeply disappointed to see the Biden administration extending failed Trump-era immigration policies that exacerbate chaos and irregular migration at the Southern border,” Castro said.

Do better Democrats. Demand better. This is utterly unacceptable. And he needs to hear that.