After taking office, Joe Biden relaxed his predecessor’s immigration policy. Asylum numbers rose to record levels. Recently, the US president tightened the rules and illegal immigration halved. Now Kamala Harris is benefiting from this in the election campaign.
American border guards take migrants into custody in New Mexico.
Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters
The American southern border with Mexico is Kamala Harris’ biggest political burden, wrote the «Economist» recently. As a senator, the Democrat criticized the Trump administration’s harsh immigration policy. “An undocumented immigrant is not a criminal,” Harris said in 2017. Later called her the billion-dollar construction of a border wall is “un-American” and a “medieval prestige project.”
In order to deter migrants, Trump also temporarily separated children from their parents at the border. At the same time, the Republican president ordered the Immigration Enforcement Agency (ICE) to step up its efforts to detain undocumented migrants who were already in the country. to track down, arrest and deport“We need to critically examine ICE,” Harris said in 2019. Many Democrats even called for the agency to be abolished. Harris also said: “We probably need to think about a fresh start.”
Relaxations fueled migration flows
During the 2020 election campaign, Joe Biden promised to immediately reverse his Republican opponent’s tougher immigration policy. “We will restore our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers,” the Democrat explainedBiden’s vision was a «fair, regulated and humane» Immigration. As Vice President, Kamala Harris supported this vision.
Shortly after taking office Biden signed with Harris at his side a series of regulations to keep his promises. As a dig at Trump, the president said: “I’m not creating new laws, I’m eliminating bad policies.” In the first months and years of his administration, Biden stopped construction of the border wall, increased the historically low refugee quotas, restricted expedited deportations and once again granted the right of asylum to victims of gang crime.
The Biden administration also suspended Trump’s controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy. The measure forced asylum seekers to wait months or years in Mexico for their decision after applying for asylum in the United States. In May 2023, Washington also repealed “Title 42.” Trump had used the legal provision to immediately send migrants back to Mexico without a trial during the Covid pandemic for reasons of disease control.
Biden was not able to immediately reverse all of his predecessor’s tightening measures. Among other things, legal appeals caused considerable delays. But the promise of a more humane policy made during the election campaign alone seemed to set new migration flows in motion. Under Trump, border protection in the south around 850,000 migrants onThis number rose steadily until 2023 under Biden to over 2 millionIn contrast to the past, those seeking protection no longer come primarily from Mexico and Central American countries. Around half now come from South America or other continents.
Kamala Harris attends a Senate hearing on human trafficking at the American southern border in 2019.
Alex Brandon / AP
A late but sharp turnaround
In this situation, it was of no use that Harris advised people during a trip to Guatemala in June 2021: “Don’t come to the USA.” Biden had tasked his vice president with tackling the causes of the migration crisis in the countries of origin. But the problem can only be solved at its roots in the long term. Harris was hardly able to achieve any success with this mission in the short term. Trump and the Republicans have since referred to Harris as Biden’s incompetent “border czar.”
In recent months, however, Biden and the Democrats have changed course in migration policy. During negotiations on new aid funds for Ukraine, the left in the Senate initially agreed to far-reaching tightening of asylum law. However, fearing for his most important campaign issue, Trump put pressure on the Republicans to reject the compromise solution that had already been reached. Nevertheless, Biden tightened his immigration policy in June with unilateral regulations.
According to a report by «New York Times» Migrants are no longer proactively asked by border officials whether they have to fear for their lives in their countries of origin. Anyone who does not express such fear is quickly deported. At the same time, the proportion of migrants apprehended at the southern border who are allowed into the country to await their asylum decision is decreased significantly.
Because Mexico and Panama are now also actively helping to send back migrants passing through, the number of illegal border crossings in the southern United States has stark In December, this figure was just under 250,000 people. In July, it was only 56,000.
This is now helping Harris in the election campaign. Trump is trying to brand the Democrat as Biden’s “architect” of the migration crisis. But Harris is now promising to sign the tightening of asylum law negotiated with the Republicans in the Senate if she wins the presidential election. In campaign appearances, Harris also emphasizes how she took a hard line against Mexican cartels and human traffickers as a prosecutor and attorney general in California.
Due to the falling migration figures, the issue of immigration has at least moved somewhat into the background. The voters are most concerned about the economy and inflation. According to surveys by the «New York Times» Americans now care more about the right to abortion than immigration – especially women.
