In an interview with New Yorkers, the editor-in-chief of the New York Times opinion section opposed former President Joe Biden's immigration policy, saying “it's not what most American voters wanted.”
David Leonhardt, who has been running the Times' “The Morning” newsletter for the past five years, told New Yorker Isaac Chotiner that the Biden administration's historically loose immigration standards are one of the top three reasons Democrats lost their election to President Donald Trump in 2024.
“It wasn't popular from the beginning. And it happened not only because of the policies they enacted, but for the majority,” Leonhardt said. I said.
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The editor-in-chief of the New York Times Opinion section wrote that most Americans opposed President Biden's immigration policy. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
As Leonhard reported in the New York Times in December, between 2021 and 2023, immigrants arrived in the United States at the highest pace in the country's history.
“According to the Congressional Budget Office, net immigration annually – it averaged 2.4 million from 2021 to 2023, minus the number of people coming to the country. The total net immigration during the Biden administration is likely to exceed 8 million.”
In an interview with New Yorker, Leonhard listed this influx of immigrants along with Biden's age and inflation as the main reason former vice president Kamala Harris couldn't win.
“And under President Biden, we had the largest immigrant surge in American history in a short time, even faster than the peak pace of Ellis Island in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,” he said.
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Former President Biden oversaw the biggest immigration surge in American history. (Biden Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images, Migigrant Caravan Photo by Jose Torres/Anadolu
“We have eight million net immigrants in this country, and it appears that around five million of them have gone illegal.
He admitted that the immigration record was sought by Biden and told New Yorkers during his 2020 campaign that he wanted “more people to come to this country.” He then began to “loosen all policies” once he took office.
“Almost immediately, immigration surged,” the journalist said.
Leonhardt said this loose immigration policy differs from former President Barack Obama, who at least increases the importance of border security and deporting criminals.
“Under Obama, this balanced approach is in 2012. It boasts more about making borders safer than any point in the past few decades. It speaks of deporting criminals who endanger our communities. Of course, this is an immigrant nation and we need to provide a channel of citizenship for those who have not been documented for those celebrating dreams.
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“And by 2020, there will be no single statement on the Democratic platform on border security,” Leonhardt continued, adding that there is “no evidence” in the vote that supported Americans to abolish border security.
He said Biden promoted a policy of “following the wishes of his highly progressive and largely wealthy members,” but pointed out Obama's “moderateness is “a lot more popular among voters than Biden's more radical position.”
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Later in the interview, he declared that the party's immigration message should be “a more moderate than the party's, acknowledging the complexity of having great benefits for both the immigrants and the country, but with meaningful flaws.”
