风萧萧_Frank
以文会友
得州政府武力抗拒联邦移民政策，政府无解，让，德州得寸是死，不让，立刻决裂联邦，死。
得州屯兵怒怼白宫，拜登前途挂在铁丝网上
第一财经•昨天 21:46听新闻
作者：孙卓 责编：谢涓举报
伊格尔帕斯（Eagle Pass）是美国得克萨斯州马弗里克县的一个小城，与墨西哥接壤。沿着伊格尔帕斯主街散步时，街上的精致店铺展示着皮革制品、陶器和衣服斗篷等，再加上独具风格的建筑，以及餐馆里供应的正宗墨西哥菜肴，让人恍如置身于墨西哥。
这座宁静的小城，近日因为一场移民危机陷入了剑拔弩张、屯兵抗令的风暴中。
伊格尔帕斯附近的一小部分美墨边境，正是得州政府与联邦政府在边境管理和安全问题上对峙的风暴眼。
在美国得克萨斯州边境城市伊格尔帕斯，巡逻人员走在新建的边境墙边。新华社资料
根据新华社的报道，得州国民警卫队在美墨边境设置带刺铁丝网等屏障拒绝非法移民进入，同时也将美国联邦执法人员拒之门外。
当地时间1月29日，得克萨斯州副州长帕特里克（DanPatrick）称，尽管最高法院上周下令允许联邦执法部门拆除该州设置的屏障，但该州将继续在美墨边境修建刀片刺网和其他围栏。“我们正在尽一切努力架设电线。”帕特里克说，“我们会继续。我们不会停止。如果他们（联邦政府）砍掉它，我们就会继续更换它。”
帕特里克威胁称，如果拜登政府派遣边境巡逻队清除障碍，得州将与联邦政府“对抗”。
“孤星行动”获得25个州支持
“上周五（1月26日）我们前往州军队去感谢他们、支持他们，希望在拜登政府向那里派遣边境巡逻队的情况下能与他们站在一起。”帕特里克还表示，“明智的是，拜登政府没有这样做。我们很庆幸他们没有这样做。我们不想发生对抗，但我们希望边境安全。”
白宫称，得州国民警卫队封锁了联邦边境巡逻队进入伊格尔帕斯靠近边境地区的谢尔比公园（Shelby Park）的通道，该地区曾经被联邦机构用于临时的移民处理中心。
美国最高法院在上周裁定，联邦政府可以取消得克萨斯州在该地区的障碍，确保联邦执法部门能够进入边境的所有地区。
得克萨斯州州长阿博特立即回应称，该州有权击退“非法移民入侵”，州执法部门可以“逾越”联邦法律。
3名移民驮着儿童穿越美国得克萨斯州伊格尔帕斯附近的美墨界河格兰德河，试图进入美国。新华社资料图
阿博特此前宣布了耗资110亿美元的边境安全计划“孤星行动”，其中包括多项措施阻止非法移民进入该州，包括设置刀片刺网、在格兰德河放置大型水浮标以及修建部分州边境墙。
在今年1月，州长阿博特部署的得州国民警卫队控制了谢尔比公园后，联邦边境巡逻人员称，他们无法在该地区处理闯入的非法移民。
负责监督边境巡逻队的国土安全部上周要求得州总检察长帕克斯顿（Ken Paxton）在周五之前“允许联邦特工进入谢尔比公园”。然而，帕克斯顿拒绝了这一要求，并称得州官员不会允许国土安全部将该地区变成“非官方和非法的入境口岸”。
“你的请求特此被拒绝。”帕克斯顿在信中写道。
帕克斯顿承诺，“得州将努力保护其南部边境，防止拜登政府破坏该州宪法自卫权的一切行为。”
得州执法部门在声明中称，谢尔比公园地区仍向公众开放，但美国海关和边境保护局已被禁止进入该地区。
当地时间25日，25个州的共和党州长共同签署了一份声明称，他们支持得州州长阿博特在边境管制问题上与联邦政府进行“激烈斗争”。
共和党州长协会网站周四发布的这封声明批评拜登政府，并表示得州拥有宪法规定的自卫权。“我们与州长阿博特和得克萨斯州团结一致，利用一切工具和策略，包括铁丝网，以确保边境安全。”
“得州正在为他们的州和这个国家的主权而战。”佛罗里达州总检察长穆迪周一在X（前为Twitter）上写道。“我和其他25名州检察长一起致信给拜登总统和国土安全部部长马约卡斯，传达的信息很简单：如果你们不能自己执行法律，那就让开，这样各州可以自己来。”
在上周五的新闻发布会上，白宫发言人皮埃尔（Jean-Pierre）称，阿博特州长“无视联邦法律”是可耻的。“我们继续看到这些政治噱头，我们继续看到这些政治游戏。”皮埃尔说，“这不安全。这无助于解决问题。”
皮埃尔还表示，移民政策的任何改变都必须经过国会批准，并重申签署方应与其参议员和众议员合作，推进立法改革。
移民议题几乎与经济同等重要
作为美国数十年来政治分歧最大、最复杂的问题之一，移民与边境危机正在成为2024年大选的首要问题。
2024年美国总统选举党内初选阶段正在展开。以刚刚结束的艾奥瓦州党团会议和新罕布什尔州初选为例，尽管美国这两个提前投票的州距离美国西南边境数千英里，当被问及“在共和党总统初选中哪个问题最重要”时，有大量的选民认为，移民议题几乎与经济同等重要。
移民和边境安全一直是美国前总统特朗普在2016年竞选成功的一项核心内容，主张在美墨边境大规模修建边境墙。在宣布参加2024年的竞选后，特别是在目前非法移民激增和边境危机愈演愈烈之后，特朗普在最近每一场的竞选演讲中都会号召他的支持者“团结起来对抗‘拜登边境危机’”。
特朗普称，如果当选，他计划严厉打击非法移民，甚至也要打击合法移民。特朗普发誓要实施“美国历史上最大规模的国内驱逐”，并将签署一项终止出生公民权的行政命令。纽约州和伊利诺伊州等多个“移民庇护州”多次批评特朗普和共和党州长“反移民、反民主”。
在被民主党点名批评后，得州州长阿博特开始将大量非法闯入的移民通过巴士运往民主党所在的庇护州。数月后，不堪移民大巴重负的民主党州长和市长开始“反转”，要求拜登“立即采取措施，解决边境移民闯入问题”。
“在整个拜登政府中，它（移民问题）使其他一切问题都黯然失色。”跨党派的移民政策研究所（Migration Policy Institute）高级研究员奇什蒂（Muzaffar Chishti）表示。
根据美国移民局的数据，在2023年12月，美墨边境非法闯入的移民数量达到创纪录的30.2万人次，逮捕人数在2022财年达到创纪录的220万人次。在2023年，有超过10万名移民已被运送到华盛顿、洛杉矶和纽约等城市。
“当社会对移民进行有序吸收时，这通常不会被注意到。但突然出现戏剧性数量的一群人时，这就变成了一种不同的问题。”奇什蒂说。
最新的民意调查显示，移民正在成为拜登的一个主要政治弱点。目前，拜登在移民问题上的支持率只有18%，这是自ABC新闻和华盛顿邮报2004年1月开始进行相关民调以来，所有美国总统的最低支持率。
拜登正在竞选连任美国总统。他日前表示，白宫团队正在同国会两党议员就一项移民法案进行谈判，以严肃应对“边境危机”。
据新华社报道，美国专栏作家胡利奥·里卡多·巴雷拉认为，舆论压力或让拜登在移民问题上采取更强硬的立场和政策，以对冲特朗普在移民问题上的优势，但可能会减损进步派和拉丁裔群体对他的支持。
有分析认为，边境安全是特朗普赢得2016年美国总统选举的主要抓手，支持他的选民群体包括白人蓝领、未受过大学教育者等，他们希望联邦政府实施更强硬的移民和边境政策，加上拜登在移民问题上处于劣势，特朗普竞选或将主要围绕移民问题展开。
第一财经广告合作，请点击这里此内容为第一财经原创，著作权归第一财经所有。未经第一财经书面授权，不得以任何方式加以使用，包括转载、摘编、复制或建立镜像。第一财经保留追究侵权者法律责任的权利。
得边境系统已经坏了，拜登移民政策戏剧性转变
据纽约时报1月30日报道 拜登总统上任第一天就暂停了几乎所有的驱逐行动。他发誓要结束川普政府的严苛做法，对那些希望来到美国的人表示同情，并确保南部边境的安全。
对拜登来说，这是一个原则问题。他希望向世界展示美国是一个人道的国家，同时也向他的同胞们证明政府可以重新发挥作用。
但是，随着边境的混乱和拜登连任希望的渺茫，这些早期的承诺基本上被搁置一旁。越境进入美国的人数达到了创纪录的水平，比川普执政时期增加了一倍多。庇护制度仍然支离破碎。
上周五，总统恳求国会授予他关闭边境的权力，以便他能够遏制美国历史上规模最大的一次失控移民潮，这与早期的情况相比发生了戏剧性的转变。
“如果被赋予这种权力，”拜登在一份声明中说，“我会在签署法案使之成为法律的当天就使用它。”
造成这场危机的一些情况超出了拜登的控制范围，比如委内瑞拉的崩溃、全球移民人数的激增，以及试图阻挠他解决这些问题的共和党人的顽固。他们拒绝提供资源，阻挠更新法律的努力，并公然藐视负责维持2000英里边境线安全和秩序的联邦官员。
但《纽约时报》基于对超过35名现任和前任官员及其他人的采访，对拜登过去三年的记录进行了调查，结果显示，总统未能克服这些障碍，边境和全美各大城市的人道主义危机日益加剧。许多选民现在表示，移民问题是他们最关心的问题，而他们对拜登正在解决这一问题没有信心。
拜登为移民开辟了合法途径，并开始重建难民系统，同时也接受了前总统川普的一些更具限制性的策略。但这些努力很快就被抵达边境的庞大人数所淹没，拜登有时也未能注意到两党日益增长的愤怒情绪。
在2020年竞选期间，拜登表示，他将成为其前任反移民政策的一剂良药。但他在白宫内部主持了一场激烈的斗争，顾问们主张加大执法力度，而反对者则力主更加欢迎移民。这场争论也随着这个国家的转变而展开。在经历了多年的通货膨胀、经济困境和政治两极分化之后，公众在美国是否应该吸收更多移民的问题上出现了分歧。
拜登从2020年誓言“结束川普对移民社区尊严的攻击”的候选人，变成了2024年 ”愿意在边境问题上做出重大妥协”的总统。这一转变可以从五个关键时刻中看出。
儿童抵达
2021年春天，来自中美洲的儿童开始成千上万地穿越边境，其中许多孩子非常小，他们希望与已经在美国的亲人团聚。总统的第一反应是同情。在罗斯福厅举行的一次会议上，他命令他的高级助手前往边境，了解那里令人绝望、人满为患的情况。
他还要求查看照片。拜登认为，他当选总统是为了以人道的方式处理移民问题。成千上万的移民儿童被塞进拥挤的边境拘留所，这与大多数人对拜登总统任期的想象大相径庭。
这是对拜登移民议程的第一次重大考验，也是对他所承诺的“更友好的方式”能否奏效的第一次考验。在2020年竞选总统期间，拜登承诺暂停驱逐出境，限制移民和海关执法局（Immigration and Customs Enforcement）的突袭行动，投资庇护系统，关闭私人移民监狱。上任第一天，拜登就向国会提出了一项庞大的移民法案，为数百万已经生活在美国的无证移民提供入籍途径。
但共和党人予以反击。他们宣告拜登的移民改革方案将胎死腹中，并警告说，人贩子和走私者将利用新总统开放边境的虚假承诺将移民输送到美国——据几位现任和前任美国官员说，政府内部的一些人也同意这种风险。
总统驳斥了这些批评。他从来就不是一个想要废除移民和海关执法局或将越境合法化的民主党人。但他的一位长期助手称，他决心向选民证明，政府是可以发挥作用的，尤其是在经历了川普总统任期的混乱之后。
孩子们在拥挤的难民营里的画面与他想要展示的完全相反。他一度对边境的混乱感到沮丧：“要解决这个问题，我需要解雇谁？”
据参加会议的一名高级官员透露，在白宫西翼，总统的顾问们就是否将这些孩子送回墨西哥举行了紧急会谈，但拜登拒绝了。
总统说，把他们送回去是不合情理和不人道的。
遣返海地人
拜登的欢迎姿态很快受到了考验。
2021年4月，他扩大了逃离本国帮派暴力的海地人在美国的居留人数。但美国政府同时决定，如果大批海地人涌入边境，美国将利用新冠时代的一项名为“第42章 ”的权力将他们遣送回国。
没花多长时间，2021年9月，在为期16天的时间里，19752名海地人进入了德克萨斯州德尔里奥国际大桥（Del Rio International Bridge）下的临时营地。
拜登迅速谴责了边境巡逻人员骑马围捕移民的令人震惊的画面，并承诺这些人员 “将付出代价”。
但一位前官员表示，白宫也施加了巨大压力，要求清理大桥。白宫西翼的国家安全顾问们每天两次通电话，协调政府应对人道主义危机，这场危机随后也迅速演变成了一场政治危机。
由于边境巡逻队将海地人驱逐出境的能力有限，许多海地人被允许留在美国，并被通知在移民法庭出庭。但数千人被驱逐出境。在一些日子里，有多达39架航班满载着移民飞往海地首都太子港（ Port-au-Prince）。
政府称之为“减压”。
快速的驱逐行动暴露了政府内部的分裂，而这种分裂只会随着时间的推移而加剧。
与拜登关系密切的人士表示，他一直支持执法。他的一些高级助手，如直到去年夏天一直担任他的国内政策顾问的苏珊·赖斯（Susan E. Rice）和他的国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文（Jake Sullivan），都体现了这种强硬的态度。
“移民和寻求庇护者绝对不应该相信那些在该地区兜售的想法，即边境会突然全面开放、对所有人进行处理，”赖斯在拜登就任总统之初曾说过。
但政府中的其他人则认为，对待海地人的做法背叛了拜登承诺维护的价值观。
在会议上，顾问们抱怨说，一些移民在没有机会请求庇护的情况下就登上驱逐航班，也没有被告知他们要去哪里。
总统的前海地特使丹尼尔·福特（Daniel Foote）说：“最初他们说，‘我们要摆脱川普政府的东西’，但后来他们意识到，那是我们把人挡在外面的唯一办法。”他在政府把海地人遣返后辞职，以示抗议。
拜登面临的压力越来越大，他必须找到一个解决方案。
他把目光投向了一个可以通过有意义的新移民法的地方，但几十年来一直没有这样做：国会。
民主党的抗议
华盛顿的共和党人基本上无视拜登的请求，没有坐到谈判桌前帮助修复移民系统。而在国内，共和党官员提出了他们自己的计划。
在2022年4月的一次新闻发布会上，德克萨斯州州长格雷格·阿博特（Greg Abbott）发誓要“把边境交给拜登总统”，将成千上万的移民送往民主党领导的城市。
这只是个噱头，但却奏效了。
6月中旬，巴士抵达洛杉矶市中心。去年9月和平安夜，他们在副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯（Kamala Harris）的家门前放下了移民。佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯（Ron DeSantis）将一飞机的人送往自由派精英的度假胜地玛莎葡萄园（Martha’s Vineyard）。大巴涌入纽约市。
民主党领导人应接不暇。他们呼吁总统出面，称涌入的人群消耗了他们的资源。纽约市长埃里克·亚当斯（Eric Adams）说，如果没有联邦救助和边境管制，移民潮 “将摧毁纽约市”。
要求边境安全的人不再只是川普或前总统的首席移民顾问斯蒂芬·米勒（Stephen Miller）这样的共和党人。
政府争先恐后地满足民主党的要求，提供更多资金，加快工作许可的办理。
但对移民大巴的讨论显然改变了围绕这一问题的讨论。民调开始显示，美国国内越来越多的人支持曾经受到民主党谴责、却得到川普支持的边境措施。
抑制庇护
2023年元旦过后不久，拜登发表了他总统任期内唯一一次关于移民的演讲。这次演讲之所以引人注目，部分原因在于总统很少像在气候变化、税收公平或支持乌克兰问题上那样，利用职权推动变革，这使得共和党人得以将他描绘成软弱无能的人。
但在罗斯福厅的演讲中，他宣布了对庇护的严厉新限制，几十年来，美国的法律体系一直是全球流离失所者和恐惧者的避难所。
拜登多次指责“极端共和党人”阻挠他使美国移民法现代化的努力，拒绝为边境安全提供数十亿美元资金，并拒绝两党谈判。
“他们可以继续利用移民问题在政治上得分，”他说，“或者他们也可以帮助解决问题。”
总统的讲话是数月来政府内部就如何应对危机的挫折和争论的高潮。但各方的反应凸显了其中的困难：人权组织谴责总统讲话过于严厉；共和党人则认为讲话仍然过于宽松。
拜登所应对的是第二次世界大战以来规模最大的流离失所者运动，数百万人逃离经济衰退、政治动荡和帮派暴力，他们来自中美洲、南美洲、非洲和其他地区。
这并不像川普经常声称的那样，是满载罪犯或恐怖分子的大篷车。但这些人也并非都有正当理由申请庇护以永久留在美国。
一些试图在这个问题上打动拜登的顾问最终感到幻灭，离开了政府。留下来的人鼓励总统听从自己的想法：边境局势日益恶化，需要加大执法力度。
共和党人说，新规定仍然过于软弱，并指出拜登已经主动放弃了对第42章授权的执行。移民活动人士也批评拜登，说他并不比川普好多少。
政治转变的影响很快变得显而易见，国会山的共和党人要求对边境进行镇压，以换取他们对拜登的一项首要任务的投票：向乌克兰提供更多军事援助。
三年前，民主党人可能会反对。但现在不会了。2023 年10月，来自马萨诸塞州的民主党议员在国会闭门会议上向国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约卡斯（Alejandro Mayorkas）发泄了深深的不满。
他们向国土安全部部长传达的信息是：你们必须做点什么。这必须停止。
拜登很快就察觉到了利用这一动态变化的机会，并于12月6日正式表态。
“我愿意在边境问题上做出重大妥协，”他说。“我们需要修复破损的边境系统。它已经坏了。”
阻止入境
在拜登担任总统近三年后，几乎每周都有新的证据表明边境系统功能失调。
在新墨西哥州，由于移民蜂拥而至，当地一所高中一个月内多次被关闭。在得克萨斯州，房主一觉醒来发现移民睡在他们的车库里。
2023年12月，边境人员突然关闭了从墨西哥进入德克萨斯州的鹰口货运列车桥（Eagle Pass）。原来，列车长被人收买，在火车北上穿越墨西哥时放慢了速度，以便让成千上万的移民跳上火车，越过边境。
关闭大桥是遏制边境的最后努力，但它已经失败。在鹰口，一个帐篷式的设施计划用于容纳1000名被拘留的移民，但现在却容纳了6000人。进入美国的人数比以往任何时候都多：12 月，每天有超过1.1万名移民穿越边境。
在愤怒的铁路管理者和沮丧的地方官员的压力下，拜登致电墨西哥总统安德烈·曼努埃尔·洛佩斯-奥夫拉多尔（Andrés Manuel López Obrador）。由于缺乏资金，墨西哥当月暂停了自己的移民驱逐行动。据几位美国官员透露，拜登说，这种情况必须改变。
洛佩斯-奥夫拉多尔敦促总统立即派出代表团来讨论这个问题，这促使拜登的最高外交官和其他几位官员放弃了假期计划，在最后一刻展开了争夺。
国务卿安东尼·布林肯（Antony J. Blinken）去年大部分时间都在乌克兰和中东，他和马约卡斯以及总统的国土安全顾问利兹·舍伍德-兰德尔（Liz Sherwood-Randall）赶赴墨西哥城。一天后，他们带着墨西哥的承诺返回——这是一个相对较小的胜利，但仍然是一个胜利。
拜登正在竞选白宫的第二个任期，毫不掩饰地呼吁在边境实施更多和更严格的执法。
白宫发言人安德鲁·贝茨（Andrew Bates）说，“绝大多数美国人都同意拜登总统在他的第一天改革计划中所强调的，我们的移民系统已经崩溃，我们必须确保边境安全，并有尊严地对待移民。”
上周六，拜登在南卡罗来纳州的一场竞选活动中，为挽救国会两党达成的移民协议而奋力争取，并为全面打击移民问题提出了强有力的理由。
他似乎准备在竞选中更多地扮演一个决心将人们拒之门外的领导人，而不是流离失所者的拥护者。
拜登在掌声中说：“如果法案今天成为法律，我现在就会关闭边境，并迅速加以解决。”
How the Border Crisis Shattered Biden's Immigration Hopes
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/30/us/politics/biden-border-crisis-immigration.html#:~:text=
An examination of President Biden's record reveals how he failed to overcome a surge in new arrivals and political obstacles in both parties.
The Biden administration has created pathways for legal immigration and also embraced some of former President Donald J. Trump’s harsh tactics.Credit...Maansi Srivastava/The New York TimesShare full article
By Michael D. Shear, Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs Jan. 30, 2024
The authors have collectively reported on the border and immigration politics for more than two decades. They reported from Washington.
On President Biden’s first day in office, he paused nearly all deportations. He vowed to end the harsh practices of the Trump administration, show compassion toward those wishing to come to the United States and secure the southern border.
For Mr. Biden, it was a matter of principle. He wanted to show the world that the United States was a humane nation, while also demonstrating to his fellow citizens that government could work again.
But those early promises have largely been set aside as chaos engulfs the border and imperils Mr. Biden’s re-election hopes. The number of people crossing into the United States has reached record levels, more than double than in the Trump years. The asylum system is still all but broken.
On Friday, in a dramatic turnaround from those early days, the president implored Congress to grant him the power to shut down the border so he could contain one of the largest surges of uncontrolled immigration in American history.
“If given that authority,” Mr. Biden said in a statement, “I would use it the day I sign the bill into law.”
Some of the circumstances that have created the crisis are out of Mr. Biden’s control, such as the collapse of Venezuela, a surge in migration around the world and the obstinance of Republicans who have tried to thwart his efforts to address the problems. They refused to provide resources, blocked efforts to update laws and openly defied federal officials charged with maintaining security and order along the 2,000-mile border.
A Border Patrol officer in Sunland Park, N.M., last year.
But an examination of Mr. Biden’s record over the last three years by The New York Times, based on interviews with more than 35 current and former officials and others, shows that the president has failed to overcome those obstacles. The result is a growing humanitarian crisis at the border and in major cities around the country. Many voters now say immigration is their top concern, and they do not have confidence that Mr. Biden is addressing it.
A veteran of the decades-long search for a bipartisan immigration compromise by the late Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, the president sought balance. He created legal pathways for migrants and began rebuilding the refugee system even as he embraced some of former President Donald J. Trump’s more restrictive tactics. But those efforts were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people arriving at the border, and at times Mr. Biden failed to appreciate the growing anger in both parties.
During the 2020 campaign, Mr. Biden said he would be an antidote to his predecessor’s anti-immigrant approach. But he has presided over a fierce struggle inside the White House between advisers who favored more enforcement and those who pushed to be more welcoming. That debate played out as the country also shifted. After years of inflation, economic suffering and political polarization, the public is divided about whether the United States — which is home to more immigrants than any other nation — should absorb more.
Mr. Biden went from a 2020 candidate who vowed to “end Trump’s assault on the dignity of immigrant communities” to a 2024 president who is “willing to make significant compromises on the border.” That shift can be seen through the prism of five key moments that document the administration’s shifting approach on a defining issue of his presidency and of the next election.
Unaccompanied migrant children were held at a detention center in Donna, Texas, in 2021.Credit...Pool photo by Dario Lopez-Mills
The Children Arrive
When children from Central America started crossing by the thousands in spring 2021, many very young and seeking to join a relative already in the United States, the president’s first instinct was compassion. In a meeting in the Roosevelt Room, he ordered his top aides to travel to the border to see the desperate, overcrowded conditions.
He also demanded to see the pictures. Mr. Biden believed he had been elected to deal with immigration in a humane manner. The sight of thousands of migrant children jammed into crowded border detention facilities, some of whom would later end up in dangerous and brutal jobs elsewhere in the United States, was not what most people imagined under a Biden presidency.
It was the first big test of his immigration agenda, and of whether the more welcoming approach he promised would work. During his campaign for the White House in 2020, Mr. Biden pledged to limit raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, invest in the asylum system and close private immigration prisons. On his first day in office, he proposed a vast immigration bill to Congress that would have provided a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants already living in America.
The next day, he paused deportations for 100 days, and even though a federal judge later blocked that policy, some migrants took it as a sign that it was worth a dangerous trek to the U.S. border.
Republicans seized the moment. They declared Mr. Biden’s immigration overhaul dead on arrival and warned that human traffickers and smugglers would funnel migrants to America with the false promise that the new president was throwing open the border — a risk that some inside the administration agreed with, according to several current and former U.S. officials.
The president dismissed the criticism. He had never been a Democrat who wanted to abolish ICE or decriminalize border crossings. But longtime aides described him as determined to prove to voters that government can work, especially after the chaos of the Trump presidency.
The images of the children in overcrowded camps were the exact opposite of what he wanted to project. At one point, he exploded in frustration about the chaos at the border: Who do I need to fire, he demanded, to fix this?
In the West Wing, the president’s advisers held urgent talks about whether to send the children back to Mexico, but Mr. Biden said no, according to a senior official who was in the meeting.
Sending them back, the president said, would be unconscionable and inhumane.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent tried to stop a Haitian migrant from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas in 2021.Credit...Paul Ratje/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Sending Haitians Back
Mr. Biden’s more welcoming stance was quickly tested.
In April 2021, he had expanded the number of Haitians who could stay in the United States after fleeing gang violence in their country. But the administration also decided that if a surge of Haitians arrived at the border, the United States would send them right back, using a Covid-era authority known as Title 42.
It did not take long. During a 16-day period in September 2021, 19,752 Haitians crossed into a makeshift camp under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas.
Mr. Biden quickly condemned shocking images of Border Patrol officers on horseback rounding up migrants and promised that the officers “would pay.”
But there was also intense pressure from the White House to clear the bridge, one former official said. National security advisers in the West Wing held calls twice a day to coordinate the administration’s efforts to deal with the fallout from a humanitarian crisis that swiftly became a political crisis as well.
Many of the Haitians were allowed to stay in the United States, with notices to appear in immigration court, because of limits on the Border Patrol’s capacity to remove them from the country. But thousands were deported. Some flights took migrants back to Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, while others flew them to less crowded parts of the border within the United States, a practice the administration called “decompression.”
Officials estimated that thousands of migrants converged on Del Rio, Texas, in 2021.Credit...Julio Cortez/Associated Press
The rapid deportations exposed a split in the administration that would only grow over time.
People close to Mr. Biden said he had always supported enforcing the law. Some of his top aides, such as Susan E. Rice, who served as his domestic policy adviser until last summer, and Jake Sullivan, his national security adviser, embodied that tough-minded approach.
“Migrants and asylum seekers absolutely should not believe those in the region peddling the idea that the border will suddenly be fully open to process everyone on Day 1,” Ms. Rice had said early on in Mr. Biden’s presidency.
But others in the administration saw the treatment of Haitians as a betrayal of the values that Mr. Biden had promised to uphold.
In meetings, advisers complained that some migrants had been told to board deportation flights without a chance to ask for asylum and without being told where they were going.
“Originally they said, ‘We’re going to get rid of Trump administration stuff,’” said Daniel Foote, the president’s former envoy to Haiti, who resigned in protest after the administration sent the Haitians back. “But then they realized that this is the only way we can keep people out.”
Pressure was building on Mr. Biden to find a solution.
He looked to the one place that could pass meaningful new immigration laws, but has not done so in decades: Congress.
Migrants arriving in New York City last year.Credit...David Dee Delgado for The New York Times
The Democratic Revolt
Republicans in Washington largely ignored Mr. Biden’s entreaties to come to the negotiating table to help fix the immigration system. And out in the country, G.O.P. officials came up with their own plan.
During a news conference in April 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas vowed to “take the border to President Biden” by busing thousands of migrants to Democratic-led cities.
It was a stunt, but it worked.
Buses arrived in downtown Los Angeles in mid-June. They dropped off migrants in front of the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in September and again on Christmas Eve. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida sent a planeload of people to Martha’s Vineyard, a vacation getaway for liberal elites. Buses streamed into New York City.
Democratic leaders were overwhelmed. They called for the president to step in, saying the influx was a drain on their resources. Mayor Eric Adams of New York said that without a federal bailout and clampdown at the border, swelling migration “will destroy New York City.”
The people demanding border security were no longer just Republicans like Mr. Trump or Stephen Miller, the former president’s top immigration adviser. They were members of Mr. Biden’s own party.
The administration scrambled to meet the Democratic demands, providing more money and speeding up the processing of work permits.
But the busing of migrants clearly shifted the discourse around the issue. And polling began to show growing support in the United States for border measures once denounced by Democrats and championed by Mr. Trump.
Mr. Biden last year repeatedly accused “extreme Republicans” of blocking his efforts to modernize the nation’s immigration laws during his only immigration speech.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Curbing Asylum
Not long after New Year’s Day in 2023, Mr. Biden delivered the only immigration speech of his presidency. It was notable in part because the president rarely used the power of his office to press for change the way he did for climate change, tax fairness or support for Ukraine, allowing Republicans to paint him as weak and ineffective.
But in his speech from the Roosevelt Room, he announced tough new restrictions on asylum, the system of laws that has for decades established the United States as a place of refuge for displaced and fearful people across the globe.
Mr. Biden repeatedly accused “extreme Republicans” of blocking his efforts to modernize the nation’s immigration laws, refusing to provide billions of dollars for border security and rejecting bipartisan negotiations.
“They can keep using immigration to try to score political points,” he said, “or they can help solve the problem.”
The president’s speech was the culmination of months of frustration and debate inside the administration on how to confront the crisis. But the reaction underscored the difficulties: Human rights groups condemned it as too harsh. Republicans said it was still too lenient.
Migrants from Venezuela in Chicago. Cities across the United States have faced a growing number of migrants.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times
Mr. Biden was responding to the largest movement of displaced people since World War II, with millions fleeing economic decline, political instability and gang violence — from Central America, South America, Africa and elsewhere.
It was not, as Mr. Trump often claimed, caravans full of criminals or terrorists. But neither was it people who all had legitimate reasons for claiming asylum to stay in the United States permanently.
Some advisers who tried to appeal to Mr. Biden’s heart on the issue eventually left the administration, feeling disillusioned. The ones who remained encouraged the president to listen to his head: The situation at the border was getting worse, and more enforcement was needed.
Republicans said the new rules were still too weak, noting that Mr. Biden had voluntarily dropped enforcement of the Title 42 authority. Immigration activists criticized Mr. Biden, too, saying he was no better than Mr. Trump.
The impact of the political shift soon became obvious, as Republicans on Capitol Hill demanded a crackdown on the border in exchange for their votes on one of Mr. Biden’s top priorities: sending more military aid to Ukraine.
Three years earlier, Democrats might have balked. But not anymore. Deeply frustrated Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts vented to Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, in a closed-door session at the Capitol in October 2023.
Their message to the secretary was driven by the financial costs of dealing with the migrants in their state: You have to do something. This has got to stop.
Mr. Biden soon sensed an opening to capitalize on the changing dynamic, and on Dec. 6 he made it official.
“I am willing to make significant compromises on the border,” he said. “We need to fix the broken border system. It is broken.”
Migrants rode a freight train en route to the U.S. border last year.Credit...John Moore/Getty Images
Keeping Them Out
After nearly three years of Mr. Biden’s presidency, just about every week brought new evidence of the dysfunction.
In New Mexico, a local high school went on lockdown several times a month because of migrants swarming across school grounds. In Texas, homeowners woke up to find migrants sleeping in their garages.
In December 2023, border officers abruptly closed the bridge carrying freight trains from Mexico into Texas at Eagle Pass. It turned out conductors were being bribed to slow down as the trains made their way north through Mexico, allowing thousands of migrants to jump on and cross the border.
Closing the bridge was a last-ditch effort to contain the border, and it was failing. In Eagle Pass, a tent-like facility designed to hold 1,000 detained migrants was housing 6,000. And the number of people coming into the United States was higher than it had ever been: In December, more than 11,000 migrants were crossing the border each day.
Under pressure from angry rail executives and frustrated local officials, Mr. Biden called President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico. Mexico that month had suspended its own migrant deportations, which help prevent people from traveling north toward the United States, because of a lack of funding. That had to change, Mr. Biden said, according to several U.S. officials.
Mr. López Obrador urged the president to send a delegation right away to discuss the issue, prompting a last-minute scramble as Mr. Biden’s top diplomat and several others abandoned holiday plans.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who had spent much of the year in Ukraine and the Middle East, rushed to Mexico City with Mr. Mayorkas and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the president’s homeland security adviser. They returned a day later with a commitment from Mexico to resume enforcement — a relatively small victory, but a victory nonetheless.
Mr. Biden’s record over the past three years shows that his efforts on immigration have largely failed.Credit...Fred Ramos for The New York Times
As he campaigns for a second term in the White House, Mr. Biden has become unapologetic in his calls for more, and stricter, enforcement at the border.
“The American people overwhelmingly agree with what President Biden underlined in his Day 1 reform plan,” said Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, “that our immigration system is broken and we have an imperative to secure the border and treat migrants with dignity.”
On Saturday, as he fought to save a bipartisan immigration deal from collapse in Congress, Mr. Biden made a forceful case for a sweeping crackdown on immigration during a campaign event in South Carolina.
He appears ready to run more as a leader determined to keep people out and less as a champion of displaced people.
“If that bill were the law today,” Mr. Biden said to applause, “I’d shut down the border right now and fix it quickly.”
A correction was made on Jan. 30, 2024
An earlier version of this article misstated how many flights of migrants were sent back to Port-au-Prince in September 2021. There were 58 expulsion flights that month, not up to 39 flights per day.
How we handle corrections
Michael D. Shear is a White House correspondent for The New York Times, covering President Biden and his administration. He has reported on politics for more than 30 years. More about Michael D. Shear
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent covering a range of domestic and international issues in the Biden White House, including homeland security and extremism. He joined The Times in 2019 as the homeland security correspondent. More about Zolan Kanno-Youngs
