Decryption | Biden’s wall

(New York) Amazing things are said and written, even unprecedented, among Democrats on immigration these days.

1^er Last October, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said the border between the United States and Mexico was “too open.” “It is in our DNA to welcome immigrants. But there must be limits,” she said in a television interview.

The next day, his Illinois counterpart, JB Pritzker, denounced “the lack of intervention and coordination from the federal government at the border.” In a letter addressed to Joe Biden, he clarified that this gap “has created an untenable situation” in his state.

Two days later, Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Mariano expressed his own frustration with the occupant of the White House and his handling of migrants, more than 260,000 of whom have crossed the southern border irregularly. in September, a record. “The guy is running for president. He better start paying attention to it,” he said to journalists.

But the most surprising statement came from Joe Biden himself. Last Thursday, he confirmed the extension by 32 km of the wall separating the United States from Mexico in a border region of Texas which is experiencing an increase in irregular entries. He thus broke one of his most memorable electoral promises: “There will not be another foot of wall built under my administration,” he said in August 2020, reiterating his intention to turn his back on the greatest symbol of Donald Trump’s immigration policy.

The Democratic president swore that he could do nothing, that the law obliged him to use the funds committed by his predecessor for the construction of his wall. And he answered “no” to the journalist who asked him if he believed that this piece of wall could be effective.

discordant voices

His Secretary of Homeland Security, however, seemed to contradict him on this specific point. “There is currently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads near the United States border in order to prevent irregular entries into the United States in the areas affected by the project,” said Alejandro Mayorkas in an official notice. He later said parts of the opinion had been quoted “out of context.”

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for her part, denied that the president was required to continue the construction of a wall that would force him to suspend the application of several environmental laws. “The president must take responsibility for this decision and reverse course,” she wrote on X.

No offense to AOC, this extension of the wall to the southern border seems to symbolize the evolution of the debate on illegal immigration within the Democratic Party.

The debate took an unexpected turn after Republican Governor Greg Abbott began sending busloads of migrants to “sanctuary” cities in the North and West.

Fourteen months later, Democrats are no longer content to blame this governor. They also criticize the Biden administration for its inaction or ineffectiveness in the face of the migrant crisis and question its management of the southern border, a subject which has long been the prerogative of Republicans.

And no Democratic elected official will have been more critical of the president than the mayor of New York, where more than 120,000 migrants have arrived since August 2022.

The mayor of New York is not only demanding more money from Washington to help him manage a crisis that he fears will “destroy” his city. He also calls for strengthening the border.

His Chicago counterpart, Brandon Johnson, makes a similar speech. “Let me make it clear: The City of Chicago cannot continue to safely and competently welcome newcomers without significant support and changes in immigration policy,” said the new mayor of the city. third American city, on August 30.

Evictions

After giving the green light to the extension of the wall on the southern border, Joe Biden announced another important change to his immigration policy last week: from now on, migrants from Venezuela who entered the United States irregularly will be deported pronto. Previously, the Democratic administration claimed to be obliged to welcome them due to the lack of diplomatic relations with Caracas. Around 50,000 Venezuelan migrants were intercepted at the southern border in September alone, another record.

Criticisms from elected Democrats in New York and elsewhere have undoubtedly contributed to this change, which follows the adoption last May of measures whose effectiveness is now called into question. But the polls also have something to do with it; they reflect the deep dissatisfaction of voters with the way Joe Biden is handling this complex issue.

As for the Republicans in Congress, they could help the Democratic president by agreeing to provide him with the envelope of 4 billion dollars that he is demanding to strengthen the southern border. But they prefer to accuse him of hypocrisy, refusing to believe his explanations about the reasons which will lead him to add to the wall on the southern border.

A wall that will soon also be a little bit his, whether he admits it or not.