In his State of the Union speech before Congress in early February, President Biden squandered an opportunity to be bold on immigration. Instead, Biden dedicated a meager 120 words to the subject and opted for a tired plan on border security that endangers the lives of migrants and compromises the rights of those who live in the borderlands.
Almost an hour into his speech, Biden mentioned immigration, touting his border plan to deny migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela their right to seek asylum. This compounds the suffering migrants from other countries are experiencing as the United States continues to expel people under Title 42, an archaic public health order misused to block Black and Brown migrants from seeking asylum.
He mentioned how his administration has “a record number of personnel working to secure the border,” that 8,000 human smugglers have been arrested, and that agents have seized over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in recent months.
He also pressed Congress to act, but qualified his remarks with a despairingly weak handover, saying, “If we don’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border,” then adding as if an afterthought, “And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, essential workers.” That was the extent of his remarks on immigration.
Biden’s statements were an acquiescence to the extreme right who have dominated the public framing on border issues. Republicans, now in control of Congress, have been teeing up a series of GOP-led committee hearings on border issues, including in them speakers with extreme points of view that will sully any debate on how to identify viable solutions.
For instance, on February 15, the Border Patrol union president, Brandon Judd, participated in a Congressional hearing entitled “President Biden’s Border Crisis is a Public Health Crisis.” Judd has been known to peddle the white supremacist fringe “replacement theory,” which suggests immigrants of color are being brought into the United States to replace white people.
Judd’s testimony was filled with fearmongering talking points about untraceable migrant “getaways” and cartels controlling border towns. His flawed arguments would seem to undermine the efforts of Border Patrol agents on whose behalf he purports to be a champion.
Republicans also take field trips to border communities to exemplify the so-called “border crisis.” The photo-ops they take meant to dramatize their excursions to the borderlands also are intended to challenge the Biden administration by forcing the topic to stay in the public domain. Unfortunately, the partisan visits only magnify misinformation used to further harm border communities with proposals that don’t reflect border communities’ realities.
On February 3, at Friendship Park in San Diego, where President Biden has greenlit the construction of Trump’s 30-foot border walls that will destroy that unique binational park, San Diego Sector Chief Arron Heitke led a Congressional visit that included Senator Katie Boyd Britt of Alabama. In a live tweet from Friendship Park, Senator Boyd Britt called San Diego the fentanyl trafficking epicenter.
Republican Senator Joni Ernst, also on that delegation, is now proposing “having every vehicle entering the Southern border screened by a drug-sniffing police dog.” This preposterous idea will have profound financial implications for millions of people who cross the land ports of entry in US-based border towns.
If his State of the Union speech is any indicator, President Biden has given up on border issues as he continues charging forward for the presidential election of 2024. Instead of suggesting that Congress needs to militarize border communities by increasing resources for border agents, President Biden needs to propose solutions that strengthen the rights of people who call the borderlands home and commit to protecting those crossing through them seeking safe harbor.
