Biden Pushes Deterrent Border Policy After Promising ‘Humane’ Approach

WASHINGTON — The images could have come straight from former President Donald J. Trump’s immigration playbook: mounted Border Patrol agents rounding up desperate Haitian families at the southwestern border for rapid deportation from the United States.

In fact, the aggressive effort to quickly clear a makeshift camp in Del Rio, Texas, of more than 15,000 Haitian migrants was part of a Biden administration response that included “surging” agents to the overrun area and using a Trump-era immigration policy to immediately send many people home.

President Biden’s spokeswoman said the scenes of agents on horseback were “horrific” and not “acceptable or appropriate.” Vice President Kamala Harris said “human beings should never be treated that way.” The Department of Homeland Security said it was investigating.

Still, the deportations are a stark example of how Mr. Biden — who declared on Feb. 2 that his goal was to “undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration” — is deploying some of the most aggressive approaches to immigration put in place by Mr. Trump over the past four years.

Having failed in his attempts to build a more “humane” set of immigration laws, Mr. Biden has reacted in a way that few of his supporters expected. He has demonstrated a willingness and ability to take tough measures in every case. This is despite having to face a problem that has plagued presidents for decades: how to secure the borders while fulfilling U.S. humanitarian obligations towards migrants fleeing political instability, economic hardship, or violence.

It has caused fierce debate in his administration. Some of his top advisers favor tougher policies to discourage people from crossing the border. Others advocate for a more welcoming approach.

This hard line angered immigration advocates who criticized the president for exiling the Haitians.

Their frustration with Mr. Biden goes beyond the current situation. Many stated that they were beginning to doubt his ability or desire to fulfill any of his immigration promises.

“The question that’s being asked now is: How are you actually different than Trump?” Marisa Franco (executive director of Mijente), a Latino civil-rights organization, said that she consulted with the Biden campaign while representing Senator Bernie Sanders in Vermont. “You campaigned that immigration was one of the places where Trump was inhumane and failed. And last time I checked, Trump is not the president.”

Biden administration officials bristle at that suggestion, saying the president moved within hours of taking office to undo many of Mr. Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. They say that all of their advisers support a strategy that includes creating a new, strong asylum system as well as cracking down illegal immigration.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, on Wednesday reiterated Mr. Biden’s hopes for an immigration system that is more open to those seeking refuge, even as she acknowledged the administration’s determination to keep the border secure.

“The president remains committed to putting in place a humane and orderly immigration system that includes an established and efficient process for applying for asylum,” She spoke to reporters.

The problem facing Mr. Biden is that his efforts in using the power of his office for lasting immigration reform have been blocked both by federal judges who are skeptical of executive power, and by a bureaucracy deliberately impeded by the former President. His plan to reform immigration laws has been stalled in Congress. On Sunday, he was unable to get citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrant immigrants.

Mr. Biden’s allies blame Republicans for standing in the way of needed changes because they view the border chaos on his watch as a good political issue.

“Republicans have figured this out, right?” said Cecilia Muñoz, the director of former President Barack Obama’s Domestic Policy Council and his top immigration adviser. “As long as you can keep a Democratic administration from making progress on immigration, you get to demagogue it. As long as you prevent them from fixing it, it’s a political tool.”

At a hearing on Tuesday, Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, accused the Biden administration of allowing “continued uncontrolled illegal immigration into the country.”

But to many immigration activists, the president’s reaction to the surge of border crossings — including a firm declaration that the border was closed and a refusal to allow many migrants to seek refuge in the United States — was a grim reminder of the Trump years and of Mr. Obama’s aggressive policies.

They point to the fact that Mr. Biden has fought civil rights groups in court to allow his administration to maintain one of the Mr. Trump’s strictest immigration policies: the use of a public health law known as Title 42 that allows the authorities to deny migrants their usual rights to claim asylum during the coronavirus pandemic.

The public health rule does not apply to all migrants crossing the border. From February to August, officials caught people crossing the southwestern border about 1.24 million times, according to government data. They were turned away 56 percent of times by the rule. Other people were permitted to enter the United States due to a variety of reasons.

However, activists say that this authority should be abolished.

“This deterrence-first approach is wrong and simply does not work,” Todd Schulte is the president of FWD.us. This pro-immigration organization has been an ally to the administration.

Administration officials, including staff members from Ms. Harris’s office, have made calls to humanitarian organizations in recent days. Senior homeland security officials have been making calls with advocacy organizations representing the Haitian Community and the people on the ground at Del Rio this week. On Monday, top Democrats in Congress wrote a letter requesting that the expulsion of Haitian migrants be stopped.

According to a source familiar with the situation, about 1,500 Haitian migrants were quickly deported. However, thousands more can enter the United States while they await deportation hearings. Many migrants have filed asylum claims.

Eduardo Maia Silva of the Department of Homeland Security stated that the Department of Homeland Security was releasing migrants with monitoring devices such as an ankle-bracelet.

Some cases did not seem to have clear guidelines for who was allowed to remain and who was returned to Haiti. However, most of the deported migrants are single adults.

Many of these Haitian migrants aren’t seeking refuge from violence and natural disasters. Instead, many of the migrants have been living in South America since years, having been forced from their homes by past disasters, instability, and poverty. Many migrants will be deported if they are unable to flee poverty.

Interviews with Haitian migrants who attempted to cross the border revealed that they did so because they lost their jobs or visas and needed to make a living in America.

The question of how much emphasis to place on border enforcement has been a topic of intense debate in Mr. Biden’s orbit since before he became president.

Biden, as a candidate, promised to act on his first day of office to end Trump’s policy that made asylum seekers wait in Mexico in order to process their claims.

As officials were drawing up migration policy memos, some advisers pushed back against immediately ending the Trump policy — known as Remain in Mexico — arguing that it made more sense to unwind the program slowly, according to several people familiar with the discussions who requested anonymity to talk about the debate.

These advisers argued that an abrupt decision, which could open the door for asylum seekers to pursue their claims in the United States would overwhelm U.S. officials. Mexican officials also shared this concern, believing that a quick end to the program could send the wrong message for Central Americans who are considering making the trek north.

The Biden campaign was already under pressure from advocates who doubted his sincerity in his progressive migration commitments. People close to Mr. Biden believed that Trump’s policy was so toxic that it was impossible to change. That view eventually won out when the administration moved to suspend the program the day of Mr. Biden’s inauguration.

Officials had to reevaluate the issue after the influx of migrants in the months following. Officials were discussing ways to revive the program in a limited way, even as they fought a Missouri and Texas lawsuit to do so. They believed that this was necessary to send a clear message to migrants to not come to the United States.

At the end of the summer, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration must follow a lower court’s ruling to restart the program, a decision that officials said they would abide by even as they continued the legal fight.

But in the sprawling federal agencies that deal with immigration — Homeland Security, State, Justice and Health and Human Services — the debate over how aggressive to be at the border has continued, contributing to what critics on the left and right say appears to be a chaotic and reactive policy.

Several officials who have been involved in discussions about the border said that Susan E. Rice, Mr. Biden’s domestic policy adviser, has been a leading proponent of more aggressive enforcement, arguing that it is more compassionate to pursue an immigration system that is orderly in order to pass broader reforms.

Esther Olavarria, a Cuban-born immigration lawyer who serves as Ms. Rice’s deputy, has often pushed to allow more migrants into the United States so they can pursue asylum claims, according to three people who have witnessed the discussions. Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, is sympathetic to Ms. Olavarria’s view, several people said, but as the head of the department he has been the public voice of the harsher approach.

“If you come to the United States illegally, you will be returned,” Monday’s comments were made by Mr. Mayorkas. “Your journey will not succeed, and you will be endangering your life and your family’s lives.”

Michael D. Shear, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Eileen Sullivan reported from Washington, and Natalie Kitroeff from Mexico City.

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