FILE – In this Jan. 20, 2021, file photo, President Joe Biden signs his first executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Six of Biden’s 17 first-day executive orders dealt with immigration, such as halting work on a border wall in Mexico and lifting a travel ban on people from several predominantly Muslim countries. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Joe Biden seems to be taking pages out of Donald Trump’s presidential playbook as several policies seem to mirror his predecessor’s.
During the recent State of the Union address, Biden seemed to change his tune on border security while stressing halting illegal immigration at America’s southern border is a top priority. During his first year, Customs and Border Protection officials reported more than 2 million migrants illegally crossed the border while more than 146,000 migrants were resettled across America.
Additionally, Biden halted all contracts related to the construction of the border wall. This put a considerable amount of stress on America’s immigration system and forced migrants to be packed in border facilities that didn’t have the resources to swiftly process them.
However, Biden has been returning to Trump-era policies, including continuing the Title 42 policy enforced by Trump in an attempt to stop COVID-positive migrants from entering the country. Biden now says securing the southern border is imperative.
“We need to secure the border and fix the immigration system, we can do both,” he stated. “At our border, we’ve installed new technology like cutting-edge scanners to better detect drug smuggling. We’ve set up joint patrols with Mexico and Guatemala to catch more human traffickers.”
Additionally, Biden is making strong calls to keep schools open. Democrats took immense heat amid the COVID-19 pandemic with Chicago’s mayor facing off against America’s most powerful teachers union over shutdowns and districts nationwide keeping face mask mandates. Biden has also capitulated to medical assessments, saying infection and transmission rates among children are extremely low.
The Democrat has even echoed ‘America First’ sentiments while talking about bringing back American manufacturing jobs. Following a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania late January, the president touted his more-than-infrastructure package. He said his plan aims to invest in cities and towns across the country in hopes of modernizing them and making them “cities of the future.”
Just this month, Biden vowed to shore up resources to fix the supply chain by boosting funds to bring manufacturing jobs back to America and establishing a supply of rare earth minerals independent from foreign partners. He has claimed more American made products will hit domestic shelves in the future.
“We need a future that’s made in America,” Biden stated. “Almost exactly a year ago, I issued an executive order to prioritize strengthening our domestic supply chain because when I found out was that, you know, if I was going to follow through on my commitment to say we were going to make it in America and build it in America and have all of it built in America, we needed a supply chain that was that was reliable. And including critical materials like lithium, graphite, rare earth materials which are badly needed for so many American products.”
In the meantime, critics lament it’s too late for Biden to bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats. They cited soaring inflation and crime rates plaguing America under his watch as well as his mistakes in the international arena as a rallying cry behind the GOP in the 2022 midterm elections.
Polls surveying voters and Washington insiders are predicting a Republican takeover in the House of Representatives, which could pose an obstacle for Biden to push through his policies.
