Immigration: Joe Biden Faced with His 1st Crisis

Since the Democratic president of the United States has been in office, immigrants have been flocking to the border of Mexico. This massive inflow is forcing Donald Trump’s successor to define a durable and humane immigration policy.

Joe Biden’s grace period was very short. While his ambitious stimulus package and the efficiency of his anti-COVID-19 vaccination plan are fueling his popularity, he is now confronted with his first crisis, barely two months after his arrival at the White House. During just the month of February, more than 100,000 people have tried to enter the United States through its border with Mexico, a number that had not been seen for two years. And more than 10,000 unaccompanied immigrant children and adolescents were counted on the American side, an unprecedented number since the massive inflow in 2014.

Because of the recent influx, it is difficult to differentiate between causes linked to poverty, the hurricanes in Central America, the burden of gang violence and the new Democratic president’s promise of a more liberal immigration policy. A certain ambiguity of the new administration’s message, which warns of borders closing while promising future legal immigration routes, may also be involved.

But the result is evident: Biden will have to handle a situation that is testing his plan to break with the disastrous policy of his predecessor and that fuels the Republicans’ criticisms. The latter are instilling fear by suggesting that terrorists and COVID-19 carriers are among the immigrants.

Inheriting a Field of Ruins

In terms of immigration, Biden is inheriting a field of ruins: immigrant children separated by force from their parents, some of whom never rejoined their families, a blockage of asylum applications from people filling the Mexico border camps, interruptions in aid systems of Central American countries and an unrealistic policy of “zero tolerance” at the border.

The new president deserves some recognition for having put an end to such brutality and reestablishing an administration that respects human rights. Particularly the law that limits the length of detention for minors intercepted at the border and requires them to be placed under the protection of health care authorities or a host family.

But it is still urgent that the United States, whose history is intertwined with that of its immigration, be equipped with a durable and humane policy. The bill that Biden brought to Congress, the most ambitious since the Ronald Reagan administration — when the Republicans acted as if they were champions of immigration — notably aims to progressively regulate the 11 million immigrants living in the United States without legal permission and assures essential jobs in the time of COVID-19.

Such a reform must be adopted at the beginning of a term, before being polluted by the stakes of the midterm elections. By instilling fear, the Republican Party is compromising the necessary changes that still have not been made. However, the parties could be united on certain outcomes, like the regulation of the 700,000 “Dreamers” who arrived in the United States as minors, which was just adopted by the House of Representatives but whose fate in the Senate remains uncertain.

In order to advance, we need to get rid of the long-standing debate on irrationality, to which Donald Trump added invective and brutality. And to admit that immigration issues are not dealt with using walls, but with regional diplomacy, fighting against the plagues that are destabilizing populations and sensible management of the borders.