Spurred on by a shift 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 leadership have changed their approach to immigration, focusing largely on enforcement, restrictions and penalties — a strategy sometimes not unlike that of the Trump administration. Their positions have shifted significantly to the right in part because of Republican attacks and changing public attitudes about border security.

That has immigration advocates wondering whether Democrats will refocus on providing pathways to legal status for the millions of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S.

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

Some immigrant rights advocates say misinformation, as well as a record number of unauthorized 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 that: Republican-led states are trying to regulate immigration on their own.

An “outdated” approach

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

This offer took effect in the summer and temporarily suspended consideration of most asylum applications after the seven-day average of unauthorized southern border crossings topped 2,500.

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

By 2024, Biden had already accepted some of Trump’s immigration proposals: he kept the 42 title in place for two yearsa provision aimed at prompting the return of migrants to Mexico for health reasons.

Andrea Flores, who served as director of border management at the National Security Council under the Biden administration, said Democrats are continuing to use an “antiquated” approach first used by former President Barack Obama and expanded by Trump, “it’s all about asylum.” and limiting asylum and blocking people from being able to apply for asylum.”

Flores said that over the past decade, both Democrats and Republicans have looked at border security through the lens of limiting or expanding asylum.

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

There has been some progress, Flores admits.

An example, she said, is Biden’s policies that have reduced unauthorized crossings while protecting migrants fleeing their countries. The humanitarian parole The program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans allows up to 30,000 eligible migrants a month to come to the US for up to two years after verification.

The idea of ​​the program is to reduce the number of migrants who try to come to the US illegally.

According to American Immigration Councilnearly 500,000 migrants from these four countries have come to the US in the past two years as part of the humanitarian parole program.

“This innovation, more than any asylum restrictions in the past 10 years, has resulted in the most sustained reduction in the number of people crossing the border illegally,” Flores said.

According to Department of Homeland Securitythe number of encounters with migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua between points of entry has decreased by 99 percent since the program began. Earlier last month, the White House announced that it would not renew 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 offered a balanced approach to secure our border and make our immigration system fairer.”

He said the latest measures have resulted in a more than 55 percent reduction in the number of illegal crossings at the US southern border.

In December, border guards processed almost 250,000 migrants, which is a record number. But those numbers plummeted after Biden’s asylum restrictions. In September, the number of processed migrants was about 54,000.

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

This bipartisan border agreement initially had support in the Senatebut derailed after Trump persuaded House Republicans to oppose it.

This legislation would fundamentally change the asylum system, introducing stricter restrictions on asylum seekers and raising the threshold of probable fear for migrants. It would also increase the capacity of detainees.

The proposal would also create a path to citizenship for Afghan and allied evacuees.

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

“There is a real sense of fear … in immigrant communities across the country with the election coming up,” Mukherjee said. “Because regardless of who takes office, we’re likely to see massive changes to the immigration system.”

Trump’s influence on the politics of Democrats

For many immigration observers, Democrats’ positions over the past decade seem to contrast with policies proposed by leaders they once considered close allies.

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

She says Republicans’ mischaracterization of the increase in migrants crossing the U.S. southern border has pushed Democrats to take more restrictive action.

“The GOP, the MAGA Republicans, have been so strategic in lying to the American people about this border crisis that now everyone believes it’s happening when it’s not,” Sollod said.

According to the results of the survey, published in Pew Research Center Last month, the vast majority of Trump and Harris supporters favored “improving border security.”

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

Sollod says she thinks Democrats have had to try to “see them as tough.”

“The point is, you’re never going to be seen as tougher on immigration than Donald Trump, who has promised mass detentions and deportations,” Sollos said.

Congressman Greg Cazar, a Democrat from Texas, says Trump’s focus on false narratives about immigrants is part of the reason the conversation around immigration has changed so much.

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

That includes, Kazar says, pathways to citizenship.

“The Democratic Party should be able to play offense on this issue,” Kasar said. “Unfortunately, I believe that Trump’s relentless fear-mongering and scapegoating of immigrant communities has left the Democratic Party more divided on this issue than we need.”

Cautious optimism about Harris

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

The Harris campaign declined a request for comment and referred it to NPR remarks the vice president made in Arizona last month. There, she called for an overhaul of the immigration system. She promised tougher penalties for migrants who cross the border without permission and called for a path to citizenship for “hard-working immigrants who have been here for years.”

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

“I know it’s not going to be easy because it never happens,” Sollod said. “Politicians, I’ve learned through this job, never do anything out of a good heart — they do things when they’re pushed.”

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