If you haven’t noticed, Joe Biden’s announcement last week that he was going to restart construction of the border wall has finally gotten the media to admit that perhaps Donald Trump’s ideas about how to handle the immigration crisis at the border weren’t so bad after all.
Not that we’re actually hearing that from the press. But by pointing out, however reluctantly, that Biden is restarting construction on the border wall, the media admits that some of Trump’s border security policies were sound.
The New York Times put it succinctly: “Instead of becoming the president who quickly reversed his predecessor’s policies, Mr. Biden has repeatedly tried to curtail the migration of a record number of people — and the political fallout that has created — by embracing, or at least tolerating, some of Mr. Trump’s anti-immigrant approaches.”
Is there a difference between an “anti-immigrant” and “pro-border security” immigration policy? The New York Times apparently doesn’t think so.
Biden’s political peril was made worse by lying about why he was restarting construction on the border wall. “The wall thing?” Mr. Biden asked reporters on Friday. “Yeah. Well, I was told that I had no choice — that I, you know, Congress passes legislation to build something, whether it’s an aircraft carrier wall or provide for a tax cut. I can’t say, ‘I don’t like it. I’m not going to do it.’”
But is that true? And if it is true, why the delay from when the money was appropriated — 2019 — to when it will actually be spent?
“We had no choice,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday during a press conference in Mexico. “It was mandated by law. We requested that Congress rescind the direction. It did not do so. We, of course, must follow the law. Our policy remains as it was since day one. We are opposed to the construction of the wall.”
If Biden had no choice, why did he halt construction when he took office? Why did he promise in 2019, before he was elected, “There will not be another foot of wall constructed”? The media helpfully parrots this new line from the White House about having “no choice” but to continue construction — without asking the painfully obvious question of what the heck took Biden so long.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was beside herself. She was one of the few Democrats to point out Biden’s hypocrisy. “The Biden administration was not required to expand construction of the border wall — and they certainly were not required to waive several environmental laws to expedite the building,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “The President needs to take responsibility for this decision and reverse course.”
She added, “A wall does nothing to deter people who are fleeing poverty and violence from coming to the United States. Walls only serve to push migrants into more remote areas, increasing their chances of death. It is a cruel policy.”
“This president came into office with a lot of moral clarity about where the lines were,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, the executive director of America’s Voice, an immigrant rights organization. She added that he and his aides “need to sort of decide who they are on this issue.”
The moment underscores the new reality for the president as he prepares to campaign for a second term. His handling of immigration has become one of his biggest potential liabilities, with polls showing deep dissatisfaction among voters about how he deals with the new arrivals. With record numbers of migrants streaming across the border, he can no longer portray it in the simple terms he did a few years ago.
Since taking office, Mr. Biden has tried to balance his stated desire for a more humane approach with strict enforcement that aides believe is critical to ensure that migrants do not believe the border is open to anyone.
In addition to restarting border wall construction, Biden has revamped other Trump-era policies, including modifying the “Remain in Mexico” policy, maintaining pandemic rules about allowing adult male illegal aliens into the country, and preventing asylum seekers from entering the United States if they’re transited another country.
Related: Biden’s Border Wall Gambit Proves That He Can Do a Lot More to Control the Border
All of these policies were described variously by Democrats as “cruel” or “inhumane.” How does Biden describe them now? Like Trump described them — a necessity.