The Biden border surge comes early

In this post, I wrote about how Joe Biden was reneging on his campaign promise to “take urgent action to undo” President Trump’s immigration policies. As the Washington Post put it:

Top advisers to president-elect Joe Biden said Monday they will not immediately roll back asylum restrictions at the Mexico border and other restrictive Trump administration policies, walking back some of Biden’s campaign promises for “Day One” changes.

The Post went on to explain that Team Biden is worried that “easing up too quickly on Trump’s enforcement system could trigger a new migration surge at the border.” No kidding.

But it turns out that Biden’s campaign promises are enough to trigger a “migration surge at the border,” now that he is about to become president. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reports:

[O]n the night of December 29 up to 400 mostly Cuban migrants forced their way past Mexican immigration and over payment turnstiles on the Paso del Norte Bridge from Ciudad Juarez with a desire to force their way into downtown El Paso. . . .

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Mobile Field Force officers met them in riot gear and used concrete blocks tipped by concertina wire to block the onslaught mid-bridge as many of the migrants chanted “Biden! Biden!” Many demanded they be let in to live in the United States while they pursue asylum claims, instead of waiting in Mexico as required under various policies of President Donald Trump.

(Emphasis added)

But Donald Trump is still president. Therefore, instead of being granted entry, the immigrants were blocked and told by a recorded message over loudspeakers in Spanish and English that any further trouble would be met by force, arrests, and prosecution. Eventually, the crowd dispersed.

A similar but smaller surge reportedly occurred on the international bridge to Del Rio, Texas. The outcome was the same.

The problem, of course, is that Biden’s campaign promises were loud and clear. They have a life of their own, notwithstanding his attempt to “walk them back.” As the CIS’ Todd Bensman says, “migrants don’t necessarily pay close attention to in-the-weeds political timing so much as big, broad, and directional messages.”

Therefore, similar surges are bound to occur soon after Biden becomes president. How will the Biden administration respond?

It’s a Hobson’s Choice, says Bensman. If the immigrants aren’t allowed in, the administration will face the politically fraught prospect of violent confrontations with migrants at the outset of Biden’s tenure. If they are allowed in, more attempts at entry will follow, producing the very visible border crisis Biden hoped to avoid when he walked back his campaign promise.

There’s a lot to appreciate in a president who says what he means and means what he says. Joe Biden doesn’t fit that description.

The immigration dilemma he has created for himself may be the first difficulty that arises from that flaw. It won’t be the last.

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