As a negotiated deal with Republican senators to address the border crisis falls apart, President Joe Biden has suddenly rediscovered his executive authority on border security.
On Wednesday, NBC News reported that the president is considering some sort of executive action to “deter illegal migration across the southern border,” marking a remarkable change of course for a president who has enacted the most relaxed border security policies in the history of the nation.
Since the moment he took office on Jan. 20, 2021, Biden has gone to extensive lengths to appease his left-wing base’s desire for open borders and unfettered illegal immigration. The catastrophic effects of these policies have been well documented, whether it be the astronomical number of illegal border crossings, fentanyl smuggling, or strained infrastructure in border states and elsewhere.
But 2024 is a new year, and it is the year Biden is set to face voters as he tries to secure a second term. And naturally, election years require new policies to mitigate electoral vulnerabilities, which, for Biden, means border security policies have to be reviewed.
Immigration is by far Biden’s biggest weakness with voters. A recent Economist/YouGov poll found that a mere 33% of voters approve of Biden’s handling of immigration, the lowest of any topic polled. It is likely a big contributing factor to Biden trailing former President Donald Trump in an expected rematch 44%-43% in the same poll. Other polls place Trump’s lead at as many as 5 points.
Biden’s about-face on the border is nothing more than an electoral ploy. Trump has always made border security and immigration control a central theme of his policy goals, and voters are recognizing that. Biden, in an attempt to avoid resembling Trump in any way, has pursued a policy of wide-open borders, much to the detriment of his approval ratings.
But now that an attempt to negotiate with Republicans in Congress on border security has fallen through, Biden is looking for ways to give the illusion that he wants to address the topic himself. For a president who has long insisted that congressional action is needed, it’s a stunning admission that he, in fact, had the authority to address the border crisis all along by simply enforcing current law.
In fact, it is what Republicans have been clamoring for for months. Biden, by executive action, reversed Trump’s secure border policies, and Biden, by executive action, can reinstate them.
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But this newfound discovery of presidential authority is not the result of Biden having a sudden change of heart from his open-borders strategy. And if Biden were to win reelection, don’t expect whatever these new border security policies are to last.
Rather, expect the open border policies that have defined his presidency until now to continue or be expanded. Any effort to restrict the flow of illegal immigration in 2024 by this open-borders president is an election-year farce.
