Memo Published June 4, 2024 · 3 minute read
How Biden is Restoring Order at the Border
Kylie Murdock
While President Biden doesn’t have the power to fix our broken immigration system (that lies with Congress), his Administration has taken myriad steps in their power to restore order to the border. He’s increased border security, cracked down on fentanyl trafficking, and expanded legal pathways into the country so that people can come in other ways rather than arriving at the border. He also championed the toughest and fairest border bill in our history, which Republicans killed before even reading it.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of President Biden’s border accomplishments:
Border Security
President Biden has made historic investments in border security, increasing funding for border patrol officers, scanning technology, and fentanyl detection. He’s also been able to reestablish relations with foreign governments, gaining their cooperation on issues like migration and fentanyl trafficking. So far, his administration has:
- Increased funding for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) by $3.5 billion.1
- Removed 3.5 times as many people per month without valid cases as Trump.2
- Prioritizing the removal of people who pose a threat to public safety or national security.3
- Installed scanning technology at ports of entry so CBP can scan six times as much cargo than before.4
- Seized nearly six times as much fentanyl a year at the border compared to the Trump Administration.5
- Brokered deals with the Chinese and Mexican governments to crack down on fentanyl production and smuggling.6
- Reestablished relationships with the Venezuelan government, allowing deportations to start back up.7
- Worked with the Mexican and Guatemalan governments to improve immigration enforcement in Mexico and decrease the number of encounters at our southern border.8
- Reduced illegal border crossings by expanding legal pathways into the United States.
Legal Pathways
Increasing pathways for people to enter the United States legally means fewer people showing up at and overwhelming our southern border. President Biden, like many presidents before him, has used his authority to expand legal migration through temporary protected status, humanitarian parole, and more:
- Expanded Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to nearly 500,000 Venezuelan refugees, allowing them to live and work in the country temporarily.9
- Extended humanitarian parole to refugees from Afghanistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua.10
- Established the CBP One App, which has allowed half a million migrants to enter the US legally, decreasing border encounters.11
- Doubled the number of credible fear cases heard each week.12
- Doubled visas for seasonal, non-agricultural workers.13
- Welcomed a record 1.2 million new green-card holders in 2022.14
- Establishing regional processing centers throughout Latin America so fewer make the dangerous trip to the southern border.15
- Piloting a new rocket docket process in five cities to quickly screen and remove migrants who don’t qualify for asylum.16
Conclusion
Democrats should talk about Biden’s border accomplishments and acknowledge that more still needs to be done. Democrats are the party committed to real bipartisan solutions to the border crisis. Republicans are the party refusing to act because they would rather complain about the broken border than fix it. This is the case Democrats need to make to the American people.
