Joe Biden has been working day and night to secure the border.
The border is secure.
The border can’t be fixed without new legislation, and that requires the cooperation of Republicans.
Hey, I am going to fix the border crisis with executive action.
If a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, as Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, then Joe Biden is neither foolish nor does he have a little mind. He and his administration have been about as consistent as a toddler on whether they want to be in a stranger’s arms.
https://t.co/pa7IKHuXOO pic.twitter.com/VBhjOa6bPB
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) February 21, 2024
Of course, Emerson’s aphorism is largely bunk, however profound it seems on first hearing. If by foolish he meant sticking to doing the wrong thing repeatedly, then he is correct. But what generations of flighty people have taken from it is that logic can be dispensed in favor of flighty emotionalism.
Biden’s inconsistency stems from something darker, though–he is pivoting in an election year from a policy of open borders and active importation of illegal immigrants to one that he believes necessary to win an election. Everybody knows his goal is to reopen the border if he wins reelection.
We know this for many obvious reasons, the most prominent of which is his refusal to do anything to stanch the flow of illegals until it started hurting him with his constituents. He kept on insisting that the border was open solely because the Republicans refused to cooperate with his policies, and he could do nothing on his own.
Suddenly, that excuse has gone out the window. Not because he discovered any new principles in the law but because open borders threatened his reelection prospects. He is losing Black voters, and he needs them.
Under the new policies, asylum officers would be instructed to raise the standards they use in their “credible fear interviews,” the first screening given to asylum-seekers who are trying to avoid deportation for crossing the border illegally. And Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be told to prioritize recently arrived migrants for deportation, in a “last in, first out” policy, the officials said.
A congressional aide with knowledge of the deliberations said the Biden administration has yet to make a decision, but raising the bar on asylum and deporting more newly arrived migrants are considered “low hanging fruit” and actions that can be taken quickly.
The three U.S. officials said it is unclear whether the policies would be achieved through executive order or a new federal regulation, which could take months to implement.
Making it harder to claim asylum and fast-tracking migrants for deportation are not new ideas, but they are being considered more seriously as the Biden administration looks for ways to tamp down chaos at the border after Republicans blocked border security provisions in the National Security Supplemental bill earlier this month.
Biden’s administration has proven to be quite good at inventing new powers for the president when it wants to. He can violate Supreme Court orders when he likes–canceling student loans, anyone? He just canceled another billion dollars, despite having no legal authority.
In this case, though, Biden didn’t have to do fancy footwork to tighten border entries. He will be hewing closer to the law and its spirit if he starts getting tough on fake asylum claims.
Until a few minutes ago, Biden had the Border Patrol literally opening the border when Texas closed it and then releasing lawbreakers into the country with more ability to travel freely than US citizens or legal visitors to the country. This sudden reversal is purely a political ploy, nothing more.
Perhaps, though, it isn’t true that Biden has been anything other than consistent on this and other issues. If viewed through a different lens, his rapid twists and turns in rhetoric and policies are logical extensions of his true principles.
On every issue, Biden lies, ignores the law, and does whatever he wants whenever he wants. He hasn’t deviated a bit from his true guide star: his interests, not the country’s, not the rule of law, and not basic ethics.
Biden’s principle is that it is foolish to be consistent on policies, obeying the law, on what he says, or anything else that gets in the way of his desires.
We’ve been looking at this wrong; Biden isn’t inconsistent at all.