Spurred by shifts in public opinion, Democrats introduce immigration restrictions

When President Joe Biden took office on January 20, 2021, he did what he promised: He reversed many of former President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies.

But three years into his presidency, Biden and the Democratic Party leadership have changed their approach to immigration, emphasizing enforcement, restrictions and penalties. — a strategy at times indistinguishable from that of the Trump administration. Their positions have shifted significantly to the right, in part due to Republican attacks and changing public views on border security.

That has left immigration rights advocates wondering whether Democrats will once again focus on providing a path to legal status for the millions of undocumented migrants in the United States.

“We see the Democratic Party center now adopting the same policies and positions that MAGA Republicans fought for about six years ago,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law. School, told NPR.

Some immigrant rights advocates say misinformation, as well as record numbers of unauthorized border crossings under the Biden administration, have put Democrats in a position where they have to prove they can be tough on the border.

Add to this: Republican-led states are trying to regulate immigration on their own.

“Outdated” approach

Over the past six months, Biden has issued a series of executive actions that mimic those of the Trump administration, including limiting most asylum claims at the U.S. southern border.

This proposal took effect in the summer. And temporarily suspended the processing of most asylum applications after the seven-day average of unauthorized crossings of the southern border exceeded 2,500.

It was the same rule Trump used in 2017, ban immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries, and in 2018, again suspend the right to apply for asylum for migrants crossing the border illegally.

Before 2024, Biden had already adopted some of Trump’s immigration proposals: it kept Section 42 in force for two yearsprovision designed to quickly return migrants to Mexico for public health reasons.

Andrea Flores, who served as director of border management at the National Security Council during the Biden administration, said Democrats continue to use an “outdated” approach pioneered by former President Barack Obama and expanded by Trump: “It’s all about asylum and limiting asylum. and preventing people from applying for asylum.”

Over the past decade, both Democrats and Republicans have viewed border security through the lens of limiting or expanding access to asylum, Flores said.

“But it’s not really a complete answer to the problems we’re seeing at the border,” Flores said. “It’s not so much how Democrats have changed, but why we’re not talking about better solutions than the same policies that have already failed to create order on the US-Mexico border.”

Flores acknowledges that some progress has been made.

An example, she said, is Biden’s policies, which have reduced unauthorized border crossings while protecting migrants fleeing their countries. humanitarian parole The program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans allows up to 30,000 eligible migrants per month to come to the United States for up to two years after being vetted.

The idea behind the program is to reduce the number of migrants trying to come to the United States illegally.

According to American Immigration CouncilAbout 500,000 migrants from these four countries have come to the United States in the past two years under the Humanitarian Parole program.

“This innovation, more than any asylum restriction in the last 10 years, has led to the most sustained decline in the number of people crossing the border unauthorized,” Flores said.

According to Department of Homeland SecurityEncounters of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua between ports of entry have dropped by 99 percent since the program began. Earlier last month, the White House announced it would not extend the legal status of those in the country under the parole program.

White House spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez told NPR in a statement that the Biden administration has “put forward a balanced approach to secure our border and make our immigration system fairer and more equitable.”

He said recent policies have resulted in a more than 55 percent drop in illegal border crossings in the southern United States.

Border agents processed nearly 250,000 migrants in December, a record high. But those numbers fell sharply after Biden imposed restrictions on asylum. In September, the number of processed migrants was about 54 thousand.

Fernandez Hernandez said the White House continues to call on Congress to “reform our broken immigration system, pass a bipartisan bill in the Senate, and provide the funding we have requested for additional Border Patrol personnel and resources.”

This is a bipartisan agreement on the border. had initial support in the SenateBut went off the rails after Trump convinced House Republicans to oppose it.

This legislation would change the asylum system, placing strict restrictions on those seeking asylum and raising the initial threshold of credible fear for migrants. It would also increase the number of detention facilities.

The proposal would also provide a path to citizenship for Afghan evacuees and their allies.

But the Democrats’ approach has created uncertainty, said Mukherjee of Columbia Law School.

“With elections approaching, there is a real sense of fear in immigrant communities across the country,” Mukherjee said. “Because no matter who takes office, we will likely see massive changes to the immigration system.”

Trump’s influence on Democratic politics

To many immigration observers, the positions taken by Democrats over the past decade appear to contrast with the policies proposed by leaders they once considered close allies.

Bruna Sollod works for United We Dream Action, the political arm of an immigrant youth advocacy organization. Her organization played a key role in lobbying Obama for the 2012 launch of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, best known as DACA.

She says Republicans’ misinterpretation of the rise in migrants crossing the U.S. southern border has pushed Democrats to take more restrictive measures.

“The Republican Party, the MAGA Republicans, have lied so strategically to the American people about this crisis at the border that now everyone believes it’s happening when it’s not,” Sollod said.

According to the results of a survey published Pew Research Center Last month, Trump and Harris supporters overwhelmingly supported “improving border security.”

Nearly 30 percent of Harris supporters support mass deportations, according to a Pew poll.

Sollod says she thinks Democrats have to work hard to be “perceived as tough.”

“The fact is, you will never look tougher on immigration than Donald Trump, who has promised mass incarceration and deportation of people,” Sollos said.

Congressman Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat, says Trump’s focus on false narratives about immigrants is one reason the conversation about immigration has changed so much.

“The Democratic response, in my opinion, should be to provide a vision of what a functional, orderly, legal and humane immigration system could look like,” Casar said.

That includes, Casar said, pathways to citizenship.

“The Democratic Party needs to be able to be on the offensive on this issue,” Casar said. “Unfortunately, I think Trump’s relentless fear-mongering and scapegoating of immigrant communities has left the Democratic Party more divided on this issue than we need.”

Cautiously optimistic about Harris

Many immigrant rights activists are cautiously optimistic about what a Harris presidency could mean for immigration.

Harris’ campaign declined a request for comment and referred NPR to remarks made by the vice president in Arizona last month. There she called for an overhaul of the immigration system. She vowed to toughen punitive measures against migrants who cross the border without permission and called for a path to citizenship for “hard-working immigrants who have been here for years.”

Sollod of United We Dream Action said many of Harris’ policies do not fully align with her group’s priorities, but she said she believes a potential Harris administration could be persuaded to pursue more progressive policies.

“I know it won’t be easy because it’s never easy,” Sollod said. “Politicians, as I learned through this work, never do anything out of the goodness of their hearts—they do things when they are pushed.”

Copyright: NPR 2024