Tightening Border Rules in the US at the Cost of Migrants

U.S. President Joe Biden is single-handedly tightening asylum rules. Whether this is wise or not, we will soon see, as the election campaign is in full swing.

This is how things look when liberal politics are driven by the right. President Joe Biden tightened border and asylum regulations on Tuesday. This means that starting Wednesday, the U.S. will not process any more asylum applications for people crossing the southern border into the United States. Further still, as long as the ban is in place, anyone apprehended while the ban is in place will be unable to reenter the U.S. for up to five years,.

With this executive order, Biden is resorting to the same means that his predecessor Donald Trump used back in 2018, when he closed borders without a majority in Congress amid harsh criticism from Democrats at the time.

The situation has escalated since then, with a growing number of people seeking security in the U.S. It now takes many years to process refugees, and some city mayors, including Democrats, are sounding the alarm that this cannot continue.

One cannot explain Biden’s resorting to such means, laden with attacks on Donald Trump and the Republican Party, as part of any serious desire to solve the problem, but rather as part of an ongoing election campaign. And now, like Trump before him, Biden is running his campaign on the backs of the people seeking safety from violence and poverty in the U.S..

Whether This Helps Him Is Questionable

There is no example where closing borders has prevented any migrant or refugee movement into the U.S. People will not be deterred, they will remain in Mexico and wait for their next chance, or they will continue on their journey in their home countries. Biden’s order merely moves these people out of the spotlight on American soil, at least for now.

Whether this helps him in the election campaign is questionable. Biden wants to challenge the Republicans who argue that the government is ignoring the crisis. However, the initial response indicates that Trump will not be let anyone take the wind out of his sails so easily when it comes to his most important campaign issue. In his first statement after the guilty verdict in the hush-money trial, Trump declared that thousands of criminals and mentally sick people are storming across the southern border, while the “disgraceful justice system” deals with him. Anyone who lies and slanders so persistently is not going to stop now.

In issuing the executive order on asylum, Biden has upset more of his left-liberal Democrat base, harming migrants, and potentially, also himself.