For months, congressional Republicans have stonewalled the bipartisan bill tying stricter immigration policies to Ukraine aid, all in a blatant attempt to hurt Joe Biden’s reelection chances. But now, the president is working to flip the script, depicting Republicans as the party most responsible for thousands of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border every day.
Biden’s new gambit would involve executive actions designed to deter migration, according to a Wednesday report from NBC. The report didn’t include any details on what those actions might look like. However, a Biden administration spokesperson acknowledged they would not be as effective as the Senate bill, which Republicans rejected this week—even after Democrats conceded to several items on the GOP’s wish list, like additions to Donald Trump’s border wall and $8 billion in emergency funding for ICE.
“Congressional Republicans chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security and voted against what border agents have said they need,” a White House spokesperson told NBC. “No regulatory actions would accomplish what the bipartisan national security agreement would have done for border security and the immigration system at large.”
It wouldn’t be the first time the White House has used executive actions to attempt to discourage migrants from entering the US. Last year, as it was bracing for the end of Title 42—a pandemic-era statute first used by Trump and then Biden to deport migrants quickly under the guise of public health—the Department of Homeland Security qualified more migrants for rapid deportations and restricted the number of migrants eligible for asylum status.
In any case, Biden is already incorporating the stalled negotiations into his campaign rhetoric. Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, he accused Trump of tirelessly working to “threaten [Republicans lawmakers] and [trying to] intimidate them to vote against this proposal. It looks like they’re caving.
“Frankly, they owe it to the American people to show some spine and do what they know to be right,” he continued. “If the bill fails, I’m going to be absolutely sure about something: The American people are going to be aware of why it failed…. Every day between now and November the American people are going to know the only reason the border is not secure is Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican friends.”
Biden’s rhetoric represents a marked departure from the sunnier vision he shared during his 2020 campaign. Back in August of that year, the then presidential hopeful sought to juxtapose his border policies to those of Trump’s, promising to “restore our moral standing in the world and our historic role as a safe haven for refugees and asylum seekers.” Biden’s change of tone in this election cycle could, for one, be attributed to public opinion: Surveys have found that voters significantly favor Trump when it comes to the border, despite some metrics suggesting that Biden has adopted a harsher approach to undocumented immigrants than his predecessor.
