President Joe Biden issued an executive order this week, claiming it would restrict migrants from claiming asylum if they cross the U.S. border illegally and would help “gain control of our border.”
American voters shouldn’t be fooled. Instead, they have at least three reasons to be furious with the President’s EO.
It’s Biden’s Fault
First, let’s not forget it was Biden’s “open border” policies that created the unprecedented border crisis. On day one of becoming president, Biden announced an order to terminate former President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency concerning our southern border. Biden’s EO also paused the construction of the border wall and redirected the funds elsewhere.
On day two, Biden suspended Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program and ended the program formally six months later. The “Remain in Mexico” program kept in Mexico asylum-seekers from Central America and elsewhere until their immigration court hearings in the U.S. The program successfully returned an estimated 68,000 migrants to Mexico during the Trump presidency.
The Biden administration also relinquished its responsibility to enforce immigration law. According to a 2023 House Judiciary Committee report, “the Biden Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to remove more than 99 percent of illegal aliens through immigration court proceedings” between Jan. 20, 2021, and March 31, 2023. During this period, there were more than 5 million illegal alien encounters. The Biden administration reportedly “eased its scrutiny in reviewing asylum claims,” and “immigration judges have granted nearly 80% of claims in the last three years.” Fewer than 6,000 illegal immigrants were removed from the United States.
In 2022, the Biden administration introduced a parole program that has had significant consequences. This program allows up to 30,000 asylum-seekers from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. each month. The program allowed the Biden administration to release nearly half a million “inadmissible aliens” into the interior of the U.S., often with “little or no vetting,” according to the House Committee on Homeland Security’s latest fact sheet.
While the focus has been on the southern border, encounters at the northern border in April this year increased by a staggering 1,240 percent compared to April 2021. Under Biden, the U.S. is projected to reach 10 million encounters at America’s borders well before the end of the fiscal year.
Many American cities have been struggling to accommodate the influx of a record number of illegal migrants. Denver’s mayor, Democrat Mike Johnson, announced the reduction of regular city services from the Department of Motor Vehicles to Parks and Recreation in order to fund services for migrants. New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared that his city’s migrant crisis would destroy the city, and the City Council is currently considering a bill that will repeal the city’s sanctuary-city status.
Not to mention, our lawless border poses such a national security concern that even some illegal migrants have become worried. An illegal immigrant from Turkey told Fox News recently that the American people were right to be concerned about the lack of security checks at the southern border.
However, in a recent interview with Time, Biden made a perplexing statement. He expressed no remorse for overturning Trump’s immigration policies and absolved himself of any responsibility for the border crisis. In fact, he went as far as to say that his only mistake was taking too long to replace Trump’s immigration policy with his open-border policy — even though he implemented it on his very first day as the president of the United States. It’s a contradiction American voters should not forget.
Won’t Restore Order
The second reason Americans should be furious with Biden’s latest EO on immigration is that it would not “help us to gain control of our border, restore order to the process,” as Biden claimed.
The EO’s ban is full of loopholes. Its restriction on asylum-seekers only kicks in after illegal crossings exceed 2,500 per day. Even if this cap is strictly observed, it means nearly 1 million illegal border crossings annually, which is still a record-high number. Of course, we shouldn’t pretend the Biden administration officials will strictly enforce the 2,500 daily cap because the EO allows Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and a key architect of the Biden administration’s “open border” policy, to override the cap for all kinds of “humanitarian” reasons.
Biden’s EO grants many other exceptions designed to weaken the asylum restrictions. For example, since unaccompanied children/minors are exempt from Biden’s EO, parents and human traffickers will continue to send children and minors crossing the border. Illegal immigrants who used the CBP One mobile app to seek asylum would be excluded from the 2,500 daily cap.
Increasingly, the majority of our southern border encounters involve migrants from countries other than Mexico, including close to 25,000 illegal migrants from China in this fiscal year alone. Mexico is unlikely to take non-Mexican migrants back, and many countries won’t even take their own citizens back. Even if these countries are willing to take their citizens back, they will demand the U.S. cover the cost and logistics. It’s going to be an expensive endeavor and administrative nightmare for the U.S. to send migrants from all over the world back to their home countries. Thus, the only likely outcome is that the Biden administration will continue to release them inside the U.S. This reality will incentivize the Mexican cartels, which essentially control illegal border crossings, to send even more migrants from all over the world into the U.S.
Also, keep in mind that the EO doesn’t stop the parole program that allows up to 30,000 asylum-seekers into the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela combined. In summary, Biden’s EO is an unserious approach that won’t have any meaningful effect on restricting illegal border crossings and enhancing border security.
Pandering to Voters
Lastly, Biden’s EO is nothing but pandering to voters in an election year. For nearly three years, the Biden administration insisted that the border was not “open” and that there had been no border crisis. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre attacked anyone who criticized Biden’s open-border policy as “simply doing the work of these smugglers” and “spreading misinformation which is very dangerous.” Even after polls showed illegal immigration had become a top concern for voters, Biden continued to insist his hands were tied.
Yet Biden conveniently issued an EO on immigration before his upcoming presidential debate with Trump. The timing and various exemptions embedded in the EO demonstrate that Biden isn’t interested in solving the border crisis that was entirely his making. Instead, he merely seeks political cover so he can claim he did something about immigration and the border to pander to voters while blaming the border crisis on Republicans. Biden’s EO insults American voters’ intelligence.
The fact sheet from the White House itself admits the proposed actions in the EO are not permanent. If Biden secures a second term, he probably will revoke any restrictions imposed by this EO and exacerbate America’s border crisis. As a Wall Street Journal editorial rightly points out, “No President in memory has done more harm to political support for legal immigration than Mr. Biden. His border abdication has poisoned the chances for a compromise in Congress, and that would carry into a second term.”
For those who value a secure border and a functional immigration system, the power is in your hands to elect a different president this November.
