Is Biden right Southern border is under control?

Andrew (Yes) 

The Biden Administration has done an admirable job of righting the disastrous situation at the Southern border inherited from the Trump Administration. While there is more to do to restore basic human rights and fulfill campaign promises to immigrant communities, the Biden Administration has overseen an eighty-four percent drop in the number of children currently in CBP custody. This significant drop in detentions combined with a number of executive orders aimed at rectifying the situation at the border show that President Biden is right, the situation is under control.

While it’s clear that the recent problems at the Southern were caused directly by actions from the Trump Administration, many people do not know the extent to which Trump’s treasonous attempts to overthrow the election were to blame for the problems. According to the Biden Administration, Trump waited so long to cooperate in the transition period that the incoming staff had no idea that the outgoing administration had fired many people working the Southern border, making it drastically understaffed. 

The fact of the matter is that there are people suffering at the border, but they are being exploited by Republicans and other opponents of the Biden Administration who are looking to blame the current administration for the mistakes and failures of the last one. These lawmakers stood idly by while Former President Trump was locking up juveniles, splitting up families, and systematically eliminating basic human rights for asylum seekers. It would be lovely to think these lawmakers have grown conscious and are now concerned for the safety of migrants, but the truth is that they are simply using their predicament to score political points.

Bill (No)

A new Harvard CAPS-Harris poll reveals that President Biden is out of step with the vast majority of Americans when he contends that the Southern border is under control; fully 80% of Americans disagree. The most obvious metric to underscore Biden’s border policy failure is the alarming volume of illegal migration, which reached a 15-year high with 170,000 migrants apprehended in March. 

Biden’s border policies are aimed at rolling back Trump’s immigration reforms. The President is fulfilling his campaign promises to relax controls on immigration, stop deportations, end Trump’s policy of requiring northern-bound immigrants to wait on the Mexican side of the border, and discontinue the construction of Trump’s famed border wall. As a result, the surge of new immigrants at the border should come as no surprise.  

An additional example of Biden’s own policy contributing to the surge of migrants at the Southern border is his proposal to quintuple the number of refugees admitted to the US. In 2020, 12,000 refugees were permitted to enter the US. This year, Biden proposes to raise that limit to 62,500, doubling that number to 125,000 in 2022. Television footage of the migrants clustered at the border is in stark contrast to the narrative that Biden is promoting on COVID-19. How can he credibly continue to urge Americans to abide by guidelines for mask usage, social distancing, etc. when Americans see crowds of unmasked migrants at the Southern border not adhering to any of the COVID-19 mandates? It’s difficult to see how Biden can possibly claim that the Southern border is under control when all the immigration data and clear visual evidence tell a very different story.