When the Washington Post says you need a “coherent strategy” on the southern border, you should listen.
For a while, the Biden administration hesitated to acknowledge the current border crisis. In April, White House press secretary Jen Psaki backpedaled President Joe Biden’s use of the word “crisis” to describe the surge of unaccompanied minors arriving on the border.
As late as this June, Vice President Kamala Harris claimed her team made “a lot of progress” during a visit to El Paso, Texas. Remember, this was after she visited Central America to address the “root causes” of record-breaking migration.
Amid a surge in crime and COVID-19 cases on the border, some members of the media are criticizing the Biden administration for its immigration and asylum policies. The Washington Post published an editorial on Sunday accusing the White House of unleashing “a torrent of words and goals untethered to specific policies and timetables.”
The editorial went on to acknowledge that while Biden effectively rolled back Trump’s policies, he did not set a “clear road map to address the immediate crisis — a decades-high surge in illegal border-crossing.”
It seems the mounting criticism is reaching the White House. CBS reported the administration has increased deportations of migrants crossing the border illegally to curb the spread of COVID-19, under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Title 42 order.
U.S. authorities have also restarted “expedited removal flights” of migrant families to Central America for those who could not be deported to Mexico. Furthermore, adults who attempt to cross again could be referred for criminal prosecution, according to Customs and Border Protection official Manuel Padilla.
But these new policies, though more dynamic, are not enough. Since the “expedited removal flights” restarted last month, officials reported 242 migrant parents and children were deported. Additionally, a report from Pew Research Center found the declining share of migrant encounters on the southern border has resulted in expulsion.
And although border patrol agents have made over 103,000 Title 42 expulsions in June, this has not deterred migrants from making the dangerous trek north. The Washington Post reported approximately “one-third of migrants being taken into custody by U.S. border agents are repeat crossers, nearly three times as many as in previous years.”
Contrast the current administration’s efforts with the tsunami of migrants we’ve seen in the last two months alone. The Washington Examiner reported approximately 190,000 people attempted to cross the southern border illegally in June. In July, U.S. authorities likely encountered more than 210,000 migrants.
With his current policies failing to deter illegal immigration, Biden should adopt his predecessor’s Migrant Protection Protocols. Former President Donald Trump’s border strategy ended “catch and release” and forced migrants to wait in Mexico while their claims were processed.
These initiatives worked. Under the Trump administration, encounters of unaccompanied minors and family units fell by 43% and 56%, respectively, from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2020. Despite this success, Biden reversed Trump’s “Remain in Mexico Policy” on the first day of his presidency.
It’s time for the White House to reevaluate its immigration strategy. In the face of the greatest migrant surge in more than 20 years, Biden must scrap his current approach and secure the border.
