Understand more. Argue less.

Good morning. As immigrants continue to arrive at the Southern border, President Biden finds himself facing a challenge. Republicans have called it a massive failure, while members of his own party are split on how to respond. Let’s break it down.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Jenna Gibson

President Biden is facing a U.S. political paradigm: immigration. From January to February, the number of children and families seeking to cross the southwest border has doubled. Children crossing by themselves rose 60% to more than 9,400. 80% of them have relatives in the U.S. and 40% have a parent.

At the beginning of his term, Biden issued a public health order to turn away single adults (the largest group of migrants) at the border but allow unaccompanied children to stay in the U.S. temporarily. Children are legally allowed to be held at the border for 72 hours, upon which they are transferred to a parent or other suitable sponsor in the U.S. while their immigration case is resolved. However, border facilities simply aren’t equipped to handle this many children at once: of the 4,000 children in custody this past Sunday, 3,000 have been there longer than that 72 hour limit. Biden has deployed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help the overwhelmed facilities, as did Obama in 2014. They will support a three-month effort to safely receive, shelter, and transfer unaccompanied children who arrive at the southern border.

This sudden influx of migrants comes as President Biden works to rebuild much of the asylum infrastructure undone by President Trump. Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) blame the uptick in immigration on Biden’s proposed immigration bill. The proposal would provide a pathway to citizenship for almost 11 million unauthorized immigrants currently living in the U.S. 

Here’s what else you need to know.

The Facts

• How many? More than 29,000 children have been detained while crossing the border in the past 6 months. In the entire year before that, about 30,000 children crossed the border with their families. (WSJ)
  
• Temporary housing. The Health and Human Services Department is looking to expand a facility in Donna, Texas, to hold 2,000 children. The Dallas Convention Center is also scheduled to begin holding up to 3,000 children as early as today. (AP)
  
• Without representation? Under the 1997 Floresa agreement, lawyers can conduct oversight of child detention. However, last week, President Biden denied non-profit lawyers access to the Border Patrol tent facility housing hundreds of immigrant children. (AP)
  
• The root cause? The Biden administration is asking Congress for $4 billion in targeted aid to address underlying issues in Central America that are driving increased immigration: natural disasters, widespread food shortages, gang violence, and the economic toll of the pandemic. (AP, BBC)

NARRATIVES

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BOTTOM LINE

What Does It All Mean?

Depending on where you get your news, you’ll be hearing about the immigration story in different ways. It might sound something like this...

Biden’s immigration reform package (i.e. pathway to citizenship) doesn’t appear to have the votes to pass in the Senate, and Republicans aren’t exactly eager to help. With that legislative calculus in mind, the House hopes to start by granting citizenship to 2.5 million immigrants who may garner the most bipartisan support: DREAMers (people brought to the country as children), individuals granted Temporary Protected Status for humanitarian reasons, and farm workers. 

President Biden finds himself in a politically tenuous situation. Republicans portray Biden as advocating for illegal border crossing and attempting to undo the Trump-era policies that curtailed immigration. There’s plenty of Democratic infighting, too: progressives want larger reform passed and object to the conditions migrant children are being held in, while moderate Democrats worry about alienating their conservative constituents with overly progressive policies. Biden has been praised for repealing Trump-era policies that deny entry to immigrating children, signing executive orders that reunite children with their families, and creating a special task force to do so. With the current state of the southern border, those won’t be enough.

Last month, only 1-2% of Americans viewed immigration as the nation’s biggest issue, a list unsurprisingly topped by Coronavirus. However, as cases decline and vaccine distribution continue to improve, it might gather more attention. Divisions in the Democratic party and opposition from the Right makes an already challenging situation even more precarious.

IN OTHER NEWS

What Else We're Following

• Donald Trump recommends that his supporters get COVID-19 vaccine as polls show hesitancy, saying 'It's a great vaccine' (USA Today)
• Yesterday, President Biden said he supports reforming the Senate's filibuster rule that requires lawmakers to talk on the Senate floor to delay a bill's passage (Axios)
• U.S. intelligence reports that Russia and Iran aimed to sway the 2020 election through covert campaigns (USA Today)

Finally, some good news

Reaching for the stars. Diana Trujillo came to the U.S. to study with only $300 in her pocket — now she's a NASA Director for the Mars Rover (Good News Network)

Have a moonshot of a week. See you next Wednesday!