President Joe Biden’s supporters are wary of the impact of his intention to reopen the border with Mexico in the coming weeks as Republicans stand ready to highlight any chaos that results in preparation for their efforts to retake Congress in next year’s midterm elections, Politico reported Tuesday.
“The administration is repeating the mistakes of 2015 by underestimating the power of a border security argument,'' said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an organization that advocates for immigrants.
“And, as a result, they run the risk of losing the moderate voters who said, ‘You know what, I want a more rational approach to immigration, but still one that keeps us safe.’”
The Biden administration is expected to lift, in stages, the public health authority, Title 42, which was used by former President Donald Trump at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic last year to quickly kick out migrants arriving at the border without permitting them to seek asylum.
People familiar with the Biden administration’s discussions say the staged approach could mean that the new policy would first stop turning away families and then, at a later date, do the same for single adults.
Although immigrant advocates say the move is long overdue, experts expect the result will be a sharp rise in the number of migrants arriving at the border, which poses a major headache for the administration over how to handle the situation.
A recently released poll by the National Republican Senate Committee and the Republican Governors Association shows that 53% of voters say they are less likely to back Democrats for Congress because of the increase in migrants at the border, while only 23% say they’re more likely.
This poll is even more concerning for Democrats, because Biden has promised to create a fair and humane immigration system, but his aides have discovered that quickly reversing Trump’s policies can create both logistical and political problems. Politico points out that such was the case at the start of Biden’s presidency when record numbers of unaccompanied children at the border led to enormous attention on immigration.
With an eye on the midterms, Republicans are likely to make immigration an even greater issue with any further change in policy at the border.
“If Biden and Harris lift the highly effective Title 42 restrictions entirely, which have already been rendered far less effective since they took office, then expect a tsunami of illegal migrants, and perhaps at the worst time of summer heat,” said Steve Cortes, a former Trump campaign aide who remains close to the former president.
“It could be substantially worse than it already is now.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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