While the Biden administration appears to have ambitious plans for an overhaul of immigration policy, there seems to be enough resistance to such ideas to stave off the damage for the time being.
By Brett Kimball
President Biden has brought with him a return to the Democrat’s America-last policies. A return to the status quo which carried us through the years leading up to Trump’s presidency. With that return, and in just under two months time, Americans all over the country have already begun to feel that shift.
Perhaps the most damaging effect of the return to the failed policies of the past is seen on our southern border. In his first month, Joe Biden rescinded the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy. The policy, implemented by President Trump in 2018, required that undocumented immigrants detained at the border must be held in Mexico until their court date. Under Biden, those detained will be able to stay in the U.S. until their day in court arrives. Catch and release is back.
Throughout the campaign, Biden and Kamala Harris made several claims regarding his proposed border policy. They advocated for an expansion of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and made known their intention to give amnesty and citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants. These open-border policy proposals would be devastating for the country and all American citizens, especially the middle-class.
Biden was eager to sign several executive orders upon entering office, one of which ordered a 100 day freeze on all deportations. Though, despite his best efforts to flood the country with millions of new democrat voters, the administration has faced some resistance.
On February 24th, a Texas judge named Drew Tipton issued a ban on the enforcement of the new moratorium. Tipton ruled that the Biden administration had failed to “provide any concrete, reasonable justification for a 100-day pause on deportations,” effectively rendering the radical executive order Dead On Arrival.
Biden has also re-opened a facility full of what he called “soft-sided structures” to temporarily house children detained at the border. This facility however, was originally opened under the Trump administration back in 2018. One might recall the media attention at that time was predictably and decidedly negative, with critics of the mockingly dubbed “tent city” decrying the idea as inhumane. Those concerns seem to have dissipated these days though, with Biden receiving a mere slap on the wrist from some, including Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, or quiet, obedient silence from others. To those who recognize it, the hypocrisy from the “objective media” is nothing new.
While the Biden administration appears to have ambitious plans for an overhaul of immigration policy, there seems to be enough resistance to such ideas to stave off the damage for the time being. Immigration activists on the left for example, have noted that despite Biden’s failed attempts to halt deportations, they have continued at the same rate they did under the previous administration. This is because, even though Biden’s order called for a 100-day halt, it did not address ICE’s ability to skip the deportation court process and immediately evict any border detainee at their discretion on the basis of dangers related to the Covid-19 pandemic. This meant that effectively the executive order meant nothing and ICE could continue apace.
However, understanding that Biden so far has been a weak and ineffective president even with his Democrat majority, we shouldn’t get comfortable. If radical left Democrats succeed in hindering ICE’s ability to protect our border, the Biden administration may be able to ram through their destructive policies with far less resistance.
Brett Kimball is a college student and conservative political activist from Gaithersburg, MD.
