What Would a Strong Biden Border Security Executive Order Be Without Donald Trump

In a video posted on Truth Social last Tuesday, Trump laid out another spoil sport diatribe even more maniacal than usual. This in the wake of President Biden’s recent Presidential Proclamation that closes the southern border depending on the number of border encounters. This will dramatically reduce the pressure on the border. The policy will allow Biden to close the border between points of entry once there is an average of 2,500 crossings over the past week preceding a given day. Trump preposterously claims that this will “make the invasion worse.” Of course, that’s logically categorical bullsh*t. What Biden’s action may make worse – hopefully – is Trump’s ability to own the immigration issue.

That Biden makes me so mad!!!

Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of our country by far, has totally surrendered our southern border. His weakness and extremism have resulted in a border invasion like we have never seen before,” began Trump. “Other countries have emptied out their prisons, insane asylums and mental institutions and sent us drug dealers, human traffickers, and terrorists. Millions of people have poured into our country and now, after nearly four years of his failed, weak leadership, pathetic leadership, Crooked Joe Biden is pretending to finally do something about the border.

But in fact, it’s all about Joe because he knows we have a debate coming up in three weeks. The truth is that Joe Biden’s executive order won’t stop the invasion. It’s weak and it’s pathetic; it will actually make the invasion worse. Millions of people a year will continue to pour across our border and be released into our country. And we recently learned Biden is secretly granting mass amnesty to hundreds of thousands of these illegal aliens, along with welfare and government benefits, work permits and jobs. He’s not doing that, however, for our veterans. He’s not doing that for our homeless. He’s giving illegal aliens far more than our veterans get, far more than our homeless get.

Many of the left are even pushing for illegal aliens to vote in our elections, which is what this is all about. That’s why they’re allowing up to 20 million people since he took office. When I was president, we built over 500 miles of border wall, stopped the flood of criminals, and we had the safest border in the history of our country. We need to secure our border once again. We need to secure our border once and for all. Crooked Joe will never get the job done. He doesn’t want to get the job done. It’s just words and misinformation because he could have done it very easily. All he had to do is say, “Close the border.” That’s the power of the presidency.

But when I’m elected, it will be my top priority. On day one, I will seal the border, stop the invasion, and send Joe Biden’s illegal aliens back home. They have to be sent back home because no country can sustain the damage that our country is sustaining. All over the world, crime rates are going down because all over the world, not just South America, they are sending criminals into the United States of America. They’re taking their drug dealers and their people in jail, lots of people in jail. They’re taking their murderers, killers, they’re taking them all and sending them into the United States. In Venezuela crime is down a staggering 67%. Because if you go to Caracas, if you go to different places, they’re sending their criminals into the United States. It’s a horrible thing. And that’s happening all over the world, many, many places, many countries.

We’re not going to let it continue. We’re going to get them out. We’re going to bring our country back to safety. We’re going to make America great again, greater than ever before. Thank you very much.

The Bipartisan Way That Biden’s Border Closing Proclamation Became Necessary

Today, the White House issued a Presidential Proclamation, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a Fact Sheet announcing that President Biden effectively closed the southern border [DHS FAQ].

Excerpts from the Proclamation:

You DO have to live like a refugee, young man
Copyright, Michael V. Matheron

Section 1.  Suspension and Limitation on Entry.  The entry of any noncitizen into the United States across the southern border is hereby suspended and limited, subject to section 3 of this proclamation.  This suspension and limitation on entry shall be effective at 12:01 a.m. eastern daylight time on June 5, 2024.  The suspension and limitation directed in this proclamation shall be discontinued pursuant to subsection 2(a) of this proclamation, subject to subsection 2(b) of this proclamation.

     Sec. 2.  Applicability of Suspension and Limitation on Entry. (a)  The Secretary of Homeland Security shall monitor the number of daily encounters and, subject to subsection (b) of this section, the suspension and limitation on entry pursuant to section 1 of this proclamation shall be discontinued at 12:01 a.m. eastern time on the date that is 14 calendar days after the Secretary makes a factual determination that there has been a 7-consecutive-calendar-day average of less than 1,500 encounters, not including encounters described in subsection 4(a)(iii) of this proclamation.

Also, it directs that:

For purposes of subsection (a) and subsection (b) of this section, unaccompanied children (as defined in section 279(g)(2) of title 6, United States Code) from non-contiguous countries shall not be included in calculating the number of encounters.

President Biden has had understandably difficult policy, humanitarian, and political choices since day one of his administration. Hyperbolic MAGA/GOP criticism was expected, but due to Trump’s meddling this has not been consistent: during February, the GOP scuttled a Senate-created very workable and strict bipartisan immigration bill, one that the Senate fought hard to produce. Why refuse to pass a bipartisan bill MAGA/GOP members had helped craft? Well, enter the usual suspects: firstly, it’s impossible to please them, especially House MAGAs, with any Biden- or Democratic-supported victory, and, secondly, because Trump directed his congressional minions to deny Biden a victory – regardless of the human toll at the border. This interference is now commonplace since Trump is a demanding god who wants to mendaciously campaign on Biden’s failure to enact immigration reform. Thus, the southern border has devolved into a very serious train wreck with Trump the berserk engineman.

Also, of no small measure, there’s a pox on both houses. For example, Democratic progressives were unmoved by many of the concessions to GOP/MAGA allowed by Democratic senators during the border bill negotiations. The Congressional Progressive Caucus had this to say on May 22:

“We are disappointed that the Senate will once again vote on an already-failed border bill in a move that only splits the Democratic Caucus over extreme and unworkable enforcement-only policies. This framework, which was constructed under Republican hostage-taking, does nothing to address the longstanding updates needed to modernize our outdated immigration system, create more legal pathways, and recognize the enormous contributions of immigrants to communities and our economy. . . It is tempting to simply embrace the very policies we rejected under Donald Trump to counter the horrific xenophobic and racist attacks against immigrants coming from the right. We urge our Senate Democratic colleagues to resist this urge and instead show a clear contrast between Republicans and Democrats. Abandon unworkable policy solutions offered by Republicans and instead work with our caucuses to craft a common-sense bipartisan bill that provides holistic solutions that address our economic, humanitarian, and security needs — not more of the same enforcement-only approach that has failed us for the last 30 years.” 

Moreover, the Tri-Caucus – a diverse group of legislative leaders comprised of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) – were leery of the Senate’s deal. One of their group, CHC, issued a statement, excerpted below:

“The Senate border bill once again fails to meet the moment by putting forth enforcement-only policies and failing to include provisions that will keep families together . . . As written, the bill excludes critical protections and legal pathways for families, farm workers and America’s Dreamers who have been in the U.S. contributing to our Nation’s communities and economy for decades. . . CHC recognizes that our immigration system is broken and that there are challenges at the border that Congress must address. However, if this bill passes, it will set back real comprehensive immigration reform by years.”

I sympathize with the progressive concerns and usually side with them, and there indeed were some MAGA/GOP nasty provisions in the bipartisan border bill. The tactics here missed the moment though, when Democrats needed to present a solid front. There are times when one must accept the possible versus the perfect. This bipartisan bill was that moment when a Pyrrhic victory was worthwhile. With a win on the bipartisan bill, Democrats would have:

  • pleased most American voters (many Democrats consider border security their greatest concern);
  • helped Biden and Democratic 2024 candidates in red and purple states by giving them a big win by softening the resistance of swing voters; and;
  • turned some of those highly border-concerned independent votes from leaning MAGA/GOP to Democratic votes, and that group will be decisive in 2024 for Biden and Senate and House races with control of two out of three government branches at stake; and;
  • provided Democrats – should they capture majorities in Congress and return Biden to the White House – many chances to modify the bipartisan bill’s immigration policies to revise or remove some or all of the most objectionable MAGA/GOP provisions.

It was that important to compromise on the border security bill and there will be no more chances before the election. Opportunity – a big one – missed.

Is it too late for President’s border closing effort to remedy the harm done by failing to pass the bipartisan bill through a divided Congress? I do think the border issue will swing this election. Bear in mind, should MAGA/GOP forces repopulate the federal government in 2025, the immigration bill they will formulate will be draconian. For example, see a GOP bill that cleared the House one-year ago, a bill that would have codified President Trump’s policies and added ever more severe policies. Hopefully, the future of Biden’s Proclamation in the five months before election day will cure much of the public’s intense concern about the administration’s immigration policies and turn undecided votes to Democratic votes. Hope especially for a minor miracle – that the disappointing Biden campaign staff will know/learn how to use and widely publicize this win From my typewriter to God’s ears.