In the spirit of the season, the Washington Examiner has identified 12 issues we believe will shape 2024 — and beyond. These close-up examinations of agenda-setting issues cover everything from the ongoing battle between the Biden family’s business deals and Republican Oversight, the emergence of a “new world order,” and fights over redistricting and new election maps. Part Three is about the border.
President Joe Biden is ending his third year in office with the southern border in worse shape now than at any time in the immigration crisis that has resulted in nearly 6 million arrests of illegal immigrants.
But if Biden wants to get a hold of the situation in 2024, the final year of his first term, immigration policy groups like NumbersUSA say he will need to step up to the plate and get Congress to act.
DECLINING SITUATION AT SOUTHERN BORDER UPS ANTE ON SENATE IMMIGRATION TALKS
“Of course, President Biden can fix the situation, but it’s apparent that there is an ideological opposition among those in charge of immigration policy to do so,” said Eric Ruark, director of research at NumbersUSA. “Congress has given the president all the tools necessary to secure the border. The border crisis is the result of deliberate choice. Nonetheless, Congress can and, given the current crisis, must do more.”
Ruark recommended Congress start with the Senate passing the House-passed H.R. 2, along with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) S.B. 2824. The bills would require immigrants outside the United States to remain in Mexico through asylum proceedings rather than be released into the country, would make it more difficult to qualify for asylum during initial screenings, and limit who can be paroled into the country.
NumbersUSA, a Washington-based nonprofit group that favors reducing overall immigration levels, agreed with Republicans who have accused Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of incompetence, indifference, and even intentionally opening the border to the masses.
Biden’s handling of the situation at the U.S. southern border stands in juxtaposition with his strong desire to send billions of dollars to Israel and Ukraine to secure their borders and homeland amid war.
The first test of the Biden administration’s efforts to fix the border, which is seeing record-breaking numbers of daily crossings, will come early in the new year. A bipartisan group of senators is working with Biden administration officials to strike a deal on border policy changes that would be acceptable to the White House as well as congressional Republicans who want H.R. 2.
A border agreement is key to unlocking support for more than $100 billion in foreign aid the White House wants to send to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Biden agreed to link border security funding to that legislation to win over support from Republicans, though they have not yet found a compromise agreement on policy changes. Senate leaders are eyeing a vote in early January on the aid bill, assuming there’s a breakthrough in the border talks.
“Obviously, we’re a part of these negotiations with the senators,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the Dec. 21 press briefing. “We think it’s going in the right direction. We want to make sure we get to a bipartisan agreement. It’s incredibly important. The president understands … that we have to fix this immigration system. It has been broken for decades now. And so, we have to do everything that we can to fix that system.”
The Migration Policy Institute’s Kathleen Bush-Joseph said displacement is a major global issue that shows no sign of easing up any time soon and improving the ways people outside the United States can legally come here ought to be something the White House works on with Congress.
“In 2024, challenges of mass displacement globally and in the Western Hemisphere will continue,” Bush-Joseph, policy analyst for MPI’s U.S. immigration policy program, said. “Without congressional action to increase lawful pathways and adequately resource the immigration system, processing will not keep up with arrivals and asylum applications. Therefore, it will be important for officials to continue to streamline and modernize immigration processes to the extent possible through executive action.”
The Biden administration has sought to expand legal pathways for people to come to the U.S., including through a phone app that allows users outside the country to schedule appointments with customs officers at the border and setting up regional centers in Central and South America where people can meet with U.S. officials about immigration pathways rather than journey north.
Bush-Joseph recommended the federal government also increasingly coordinate with state and local governments, as well as the nongovernmental organizations, as they respond to immigrants who are released into the country after coming over the border.
Leaders across the country, including New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ), and Eagle Pass, Texas, Mayor Rolando Salinas, have each called for more collaboration with the Biden administration rather than leaving immigrants to state and local municipalities.
However, Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies said addressing the border situation starts first and foremost with the White House.
“The border crisis can only be fixed with drastically different policies, which Biden is unwilling to implement. He could have done all of the things that the Republicans are asking for in the spending bill negotiations a long time ago, but he seems to be pleased with the results of his policies, so is unlikely to change,” Vaughan, CIS director of policy studies, wrote in an email.
“The only way to fix the problem at the southern border is to reverse the catch and release policies by blocking the entry of more migrants (even before they get near our border), promptly returning most who do get across to Mexico or their home countries, and initiating the removal of some recent arrivals, all of which will send a message abroad that the party is over, and people should not risk the journey, because they will not be allowed in,” Vaughan said.
Doing so would not require significant additional funding, only a change in leadership, Vaughan added.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called on Biden to do more with executive actions as Senate border talks sputtered into the new year. Ruark, from NumbersUSA, also insisted that the responsibility of addressing the border lies with Biden.
“The border crisis is not due to incompetence or the advent of external circumstances beyond the president’s control. It was brought about by willful and deliberate actions,” Ruark said. “It’s obvious that there is no genuine commitment by the White House or Democratic leaders in Congress to end the border crisis. What President Biden should do in 2024 is to take immediate action to secure the border. He already has that authority, and it is his duty under our constitutional system.”
