Crooked Media: What A Day: Disborderly conduct
By Staff
President Biden’s crackdown on the southern border has progressive Democrats fuming.
The left flank of President Biden’s own party has been quick to denounce his decision to restrict asylum applications filed by migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) declared himself “beyond disappointed” in a sit-down with the What A Day podcast.
“It’s not going to work,” Padilla said. “It’s a retread of failed Trump policies in many ways.” Padilla pointed out that the new policy makes it harder for those seeking refuge from rampant gang violence, repressive regimes, economic hardship, or conflict to find sanctuary or make legitimate claims of asylum. He called for increased resources to process those claims, instead of barring entry. “It is unconscionable to me that that is becoming the policy of the United States,” Padilla said.
Moderate Democrats have hailed Biden’s move as a step in the right direction on a difficult issue. But Padilla’s hardly the only voice on the left comparing Biden’s election-year gambit move to Trump’s anti-immigration policies. Biden’s executive order bars migrants who fail to use the congested official entry pathways from seeking asylum when the number of unauthorized entries exceeds 2,500 per day, as it has pretty much throughout Biden’s presidency. The move relies on the same executive authority Trump once used to try to ban most asylum seekers in 2018, before he was brushed back by the courts. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), member of the progressive Squad, told CNN: “With all due respect Mr. President, we should not be unearthing policies from the last administration.”
Biden’s already on shakier ground among more liberal voters and people of color than he was four years ago. The question becomes what he can do to win them back before November.
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