The Biden administration is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to immigration. Upon entering the White House, and even before, Biden campaigned on being the opposite of Trump, ending many of his border polices which ensured safety and security.
Biden “succeeded” in pandering to the left on key immigration issues, which inevitably secured his place in the White House.
However, as a crisis on the US-Mexico border unfolds like never before, the Biden administration has a choice to make: maintain a lax, leftist enforcement strategy or increase enforcement and regain security, as Trump did just less than a year ago.
Well, it seems Biden has decided on the former and will not only keep on the same path, but make matters noticeably worse for public safety and national security.
On Thursday, the Biden administration announced new rules that require authorities to only pursue migrants who recently crossed into the country without permission or are deemed to pose a threat to public safety.
The new guidelines replace interim rules issued in February and blocked by a federal judge in August as part of a lawsuit brought by Texas and Louisiana. They break from a more aggressive approach to immigration enforcement under former President Donald Trump, who early in his presidency directed authorities to apprehend anyone who was in the country illegally.
The release comes as President Joe Biden has come under fire from allies for his reliance on a Trump-era public health authority to rapidly expel migrants encountered on the U.S.-Mexico border while also facing Republican criticism that he hasn’t done enough to counter a sharp increase in migrants seeking to enter the country. His administration has expelled at least 5,000 Haitians who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at Del Rio, Texas, in recent weeks.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters that the new policy was based on the reality that the U.S. can’t go after all people in the country without legal status and shouldn’t try because many “have been contributing members of our communities for years.”
Meanwhile, the ‘reality’ is we have immigration laws in this country. The Biden administration just doesn’t want to enforce them for political reasons.
Authorities will be directed to focus on noncitizens who have crossed recently, defined as after Nov. 1, 2020, or who determined to be a threat because of “serious criminal activity.”
Mayorkas said it makes little sense to pursue all of the estimated 11 million people in the country without legal status, even if the U.S. had the law enforcement capacity to do so.
“They contribute to the well-being of our country and justice requires that we exercise our discretion accordingly,” he said. “The fact that an individual is a removeable non-citizen should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them.”
Trump directed ICE and Border Patrol agents to use resources to enforce immigration law – plain and simple. Conversely, Mayorkas and the Biden administration is giving up before the task even begins, claiming the sheer number of illegals is more they can handle, yet they continue to import new ones every day.
Author: Elizabeth Tierney