After the Thanksgiving break, Democrats were left grappling with internal party turmoil. Conceding in private, many admitted that missteps from President Biden regarding border control led to widespread public disagreement, eventually triggering a comprehensive Republican victory in both White House and Congress. Post the 2024 elections, legislators, assistants, and insiders close to the Democratic party reluctantly accepted Donald Trump’s unexpected win over the potential successor of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris. They proclaimed that their lenient stance on border control proved to be a significant Achilles heel for the party.
It was disturbingly evident how President Biden’s interaction with the US Customs and Border Protection personnel at the Bridge of the Americas in El Paso, Texas on January 8, 2023, did little for their image concerning the border crisis. A senator from the Democratic side voiced the party’s regret stating, ‘Our misjudgment on the immigration issue dug our own grave, and that too in a way we foresaw and was completely avoidable.’
The senator further elaborated on the party’s failures by adding, ‘Our utter incompetence in handling this matter, including within our Democratic caucus, is an instance of political malpractice. The fault lies within us and not with the external groups trying to influence us.’
A close associate of New York City Mayor Eric Adams also voiced his concern, stating that the party should have taken heed of Adams’s warnings over the previous two years about a weak border potentially overburdening cities and detracting the working-class demographic. Unfortunately, his caution fell on deaf ears.
An unnamed insider within the House Democrats suggested that the party needs to recalibrate and unabashedly express to the Americans their disapproval of crime and illegal immigration. Trump’s campaign pivoted on the idea of initiating a large-scale deportation program, particularly targeting convicted criminals—an approach that resonated with most Hispanic voters, as per the conducted polls.
During her campaign, Harris, 60, had positioned herself as a ‘border-state prosecutor’, often showing her displeasure at the Republicans at the Congress for not collaborating to pass an expansive immigration plan. The latter was even rejected by five Senate Democrats, further emphasizing her reluctance to discuss her past approval for decriminalizing border crossings and providing health care benefits, funded by taxpayers, for imprisoned immigrants.
Biden’s decision to overturn Trump’s border and asylum rules triggered an influx of unauthorized immigration, a fact acknowledged by Democratic senators. Biden, the 47th president-elect, managed to attract a majority of Hispanic male voters, as exit polls suggested, alongside securing support among Black men in key swing states. Biden’s appeal came from his proposal that included sweeping economic amendments, such as discarding taxes on overtime and tips, and introducing tax discounts for domestic car loans.
Poll results highlighted immigration as a key voter concern, superseded only by economic worries like soaring inflation and interest rates, which partially enabled Trump’s successful return. Biden’s border policies, believed to be flawed, were criticized by some Senate Democrats before the elections, possibly contributing to Harris’s defeat against Trump.
Matters were complicated by the fact that the outgoing president designated Harris as the cross-head to curb illegal immigration early in 2021, which eventually backfired with a surge of record illegal immigration. Another Democratic senator disapproved of Biden’s directive to halt the construction of the border wall between the US and Mexico and terminate asylum policies.
Despite these red flags, key members of Biden’s campaign disregarded the border-related concerns. In the year 2023, as concerns over the immigration crisis escalated, Adams had alerted Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s future campaign manager, about the discontent brewing among working-class Black and Hispanic voters due to the influx of low-skilled asylum-seekers.
The warning was brushed off at the time by Rodriguez. Recounting the episode, a source close to Adams added, ‘The results of the lack of heeding came to fruition with the current scenario. Americans and New Yorkers are now calling for an overhaul of the broken immigration system, as was previously suggested by Adams.’
The problem was especially highlighted in the record-breaking 302,000 border crossings in December of the preceding year. After that, a noticeable drop ensued when the president implemented a policy of restricting asylum applications after crossing a defined threshold.
Despite these changes, over time, an increasing fraction of those attempting to cross the border were permitted to enter the US to advocate for their pleas within the backlog-ridden asylum system. According to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in January, more than 85% of those apprehended for illegal border crossings were discharged into the US. This was a surge from the 71% in October and 74% in November of the previous year.
Members of the Republican faction accused the administration of tweaking the figures by also allowing a sizeable number of asylum-seekers into the country through lawful points of entry.