Biden Backs Trump’s Asylum Ban, Proving Dems Believe In Nothing

When it comes to immigration, President Joe Biden and the Democrats in power have proven they have no principles through their embrace of Donald Trump’s rhetoric and policies. All their talk about protecting immigrants and vulnerable populations making the deadliest trek across a land route in the world isn’t worth the talking points it’s written on.

In 2019, Joe Biden said “Trump is fighting tooth & nail to deny those fleeing dangerous situations their right to seek asylum in our nation. We should uphold our moral responsibility & enforce our immigration laws with dignity—not turn away those fleeing violence, war, & poverty.”

Yesterday, Joe Biden announced he would deny asylum to migrants fleeing violence, war and poverty if his officials believe the southern border to be “overwhelmed.” The Associated Press, the world’s preeminent straight newswire, didn’t bother to mince words when describing what this is all about in their lede.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections.

The message from high-profile Democratic politicians like Joe Biden is that all marginalized groups are expendable depending on the party’s political calculations at the time. If Trump is in office imprisoning children at the border in cells Barack Obama built, then the Democrats turn into a bunch of bleeding-heart liberals. But if the Dems are in office, then they adopt Trump’s own policies in a cynical gotcha attempt where the Republicans will still inevitably respond by calling them communists.

When reports first surfaced in February that Biden was considering throwing more international law in the trash, over 150 international, national, state, local, and faith-based organizations signed a letter released by Refugees International that opposed this Trumpian embrace of immigration policy. Yesterday the organization said they are “appalled” by this move.

The United Nations International Organization for Migration, which is run by Biden’s former senior advisor on migration Amy Pope, said that “It is crucial that any measures taken to manage migration respect the fundamental right to seek asylum, as well as to strengthen safe and regular migration pathways.”

This is yet another example of how Joe Biden has done more to destroy the western international “order” than Donald Trump did.

#NotAllDemocrats

Not all Democrats are spineless, feckless, empty suits who don’t believe in anything except perpetuating their own power at all costs. Former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Barack Obama, Julián Castro, torched the Biden administration for putting no effort into passing their initial immigration plan and backing themselves into this Trumpian executive order.

He put forth legislation on his first day and then spent almost zero political capital on the issue. He put no effort into painting a positive vision on immigration even as the GOP played extremist boogeyman politics, scaring more Americans into believing there’s an invasion.

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) June 4, 2024

Meanwhile, Biden has done little to move the country or the Congress toward immigration reform that would benefit Dreamers, their parents and other vulnerable immigrants, or even to revamp the legal immigration system to reflect the values we espouse as Democrats.

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) June 4, 2024

It’s a bit unfair to generalize “the Democratic Party” supporting this monstrous policy, as this has further deepened divisions between the principled portion of the party and Biden’s timid wing in power willing to sway in whatever direction they think they need to in any given election cycle.

As reported by The Washington Post, the fissures in the Democratic Party over this are deep. The New Democrat Coalition and Democrats for Border Security Task Force were enthused by the president’s turn towards Trump’s policy and called it a good first step. This coalition is co-chaired by Rep. Henry Cuellar, who Biden’s Department of Justice charged with bribery and acting as a foreign agent last month. He must be so proud to get this key endorsement.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tepidly endorsed the executive order, saying “[It’s] a lot better than doing nothing, but not as preferable as passing legislation, as the president admits.”

Standing opposed to Trump’s policies being enacted under a Democratic president are people like House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, who said during a news conference that “the enforcement-only side of the strategy” was too narrow and wanted a bill that expanded legal pathways to citizenship.

Senator Alex Padilla slammed the executive order, saying that “this asylum ban will fail to address the challenges at our border, just as it did under the Trump Administration. It will lead to people with legitimate asylum claims being prevented from seeking safety and returned to harm.”

The political stakes around immigration are high, but the humanitarian ones are far higher. That Biden and company are willing to defy international law at the border in order to appease a supposed Trump-tinted center is just another example of their unprincipled nature of governance.

What constituency won’t they throw under the bus in service of a political ploy?

Donald Trump and Republicans are rightfully attacked for often unconsciously admitting their own fault through projected attacks on Democrats, and this charge from Biden towards Trump when announcing this new policy absolutely falls into this category.

“[Trump] didn’t want to fix the issue. He wanted to use it to attack me. It was an extremely cynical political move and a complete disservice to the American people who are looking for us … not to weaponize the border, but to fix it.”

Banning asylum whenever you want is weaponizing the border. It violates the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol, as well as the United States’ Refugee Act of 1980. To use a phrase many a Democrat is fond of using against Trump (except apparently when he actually gets convicted???), Joe Biden is as lawless as ever.

If hundreds of people must die after being turned away from the border in order for the Democrats to move to the right of Trump in a certain voter’s mind, so be it apparently. No one is safe from this party’s cynical political ambitions.