Did the Biden-Harris administration enable an open border?

Sam (No)

While the Biden administration campaigned to reverse the Trump administration’s strict border policies, the actions of the Biden administration have instead come to resemble those of the previous, more immigration-restrictive administration. For example, the Biden administration initially ordered a pause on constructing the border wall in January 2021. But since then, the administration has continued to seize land at the border to use for the border wall, citing “eminent domain,” which allows the government to take private land for public use. The Trump administration also used the power of eminent domain in this way to acquire land at the South Texas border for use on the border wall. Additionally, the Biden administration’s restrictive policies on asylum-seeker immigration are similar to the asylum bans proposed and enacted by the Trump administration. 

More recently, the Biden administration gave the go-ahead to expedite the construction of 20 miles of a stronger border wall, which started during Trump’s presidency. This goes against a Biden campaign promise to halt the wall construction, which Republicans criticized as being too lenient. Also reminiscent of the Trump administration, the Biden administration used its executive powers to waive 26 federal laws to continue the border wall project. 

The Biden administration has made an effort to push policy to further secure the border but has been met with opposition. Specifically, Republicans in Congress blocked a bipartisan bill to bolster border security. This result stems from former President Trump’s lobbying of Republican congress members not to compromise on border policy so that he could use the issue in his 2024 presidential campaign. Biden-Harris and Democrats recognized the border crisis and did take measures to stem the tide. 

Curtice (Yes)

Instead of enforcing federal laws, like US Codes 1325 and 1326 and “The Secure Fence Act of 2006,” Biden-Harris policies encouraged and enabled an open border, facilitating the worst border crisis America had ever seen. Even in 2019, then-candidate-Biden declared asylum seekers should 'immediately surge to the border.' On his first day in office, Biden swiftly ended Trump-era policies that did much to restrict the flow of illegal immigration during Trump's term, including ending construction of the border wall. They even sold off the material to construct a border wall. States were forced to take action themselves. Arizona installed shipping containers at the border, and Texas installed barbed wire. The Biden DOJ sued both states. Clearly, the federal power under Biden and Harris's administration did all it could to thwart substantial attempts at border security.

Biden-Harris removed disincentives for illegal immigrants, making it much easier to claim asylum or be given 'free' flights inside the US. Migrants even said crossing the border was 'easy' under Biden. Reports found that 90% of illegal immigrants didn't claim asylum yet were still released anyway. Due to the overwhelming amount of illegal crossings and encounters paired with limited personnel, little-to-no screening happened with the millions of incoming migrants surging at the border. This even resulted in the administration losing track of 300k migrant children and letting dangerous foreign nationals, like terrorists and gangs, infiltrate the US, spiking crime waves. 

The 2024 election forced Biden-Harris to admit there was a crisis at the border after claiming for three years that it was secure. Yet, as Republicans have highlighted, he had the executive authority to close the border immediately this entire time. The failure of this administration to do so, along with everything they did then and continue to now, show how the Biden-Harris administration was set on dismantling a secure border and flooding the country with illegal immigrants.