The president isn’t just dealing with a surge of migrants. He’s dealing with the legacies of his two immediate predecessors.
President Joe Biden has a plan to tackle the rush of migrants at the southern border. But the White House knows implementing it will be political torture, sparking anger from left, told-ya-sos from the right, and endangering any slim hope for immigration reform.
The bind is one that the president and his team recognizes has no quick solution. But, for now, they are looking at a number of new proposals and ideas.
Among them, they are searching for emergency shelters for minors traveling alone across the border and activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to four people briefed on the plans. They are also considering placing Health and Human Services staff at the border to more quickly assist children, and looking for ways to more quickly vet adults who could take care of those kids, including waiving fingerprint requirements in lieu of background checks, those briefed on the plans said.
Already, the administration has asked for $4 billion over four years to tackle the root causes of migrations in Central American countries and restore a program that will allow some Central American children to apply for admission to the country. They’re also paying to transport children to their sponsors’ homes, administering vaccines to border workers and streamlining background checks for shelter employees. This week, Biden was briefed by top officials he dispatched to the border.
The moves are designed to alleviate some of the pressure the White House now faces over a situation that even allies say is becoming a crisis. It is, to a degree, a familiar place for a president to be. Biden’s predecessors had to address surges in migration at the Mexican border, too.
But what makes the current situation unique is the political context in which it is occurring: with Democrats wary of repeating the Obama-era deportation-heavy approach and Donald Trump’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents fresh in Americans’ minds. Whatever step Biden takes, confidantes predict, the criticism against him will be fierce.
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President Joe Biden has a plan to tackle the rush of migrants at the southern border, but the White House knows implementing it will be political torture https://t.co/TKcaua1T4R
— POLITICO (@politico) March 12, 2021
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