On WBUR's Thursday broadcast of “Here and Now,” new york times Senior writer David Leonhardt discusses the record influx of immigrants under President Joe Biden and argues that despite inaccurate protests by members of the Biden administration to the contrary, this surge is largely due to Biden's policies. He said that. Basically, when it comes to immigration and family separation, many Democrats have become radicalized and become uncomfortable talking about restricting immigration. ”
“I think the main reason this happened is that the Biden administration loosened immigration policies and that President Biden sent a very welcoming message to the public during the campaign,” Leonhart said. he said. He encouraged people to come. And the Democratic Party has long had a moderate and mixed message on immigration. Barack Obama epitomized exactly what Democrats have said at the same time: they want to protect the rights of people already in this country, but they also want to strengthen border security. And as you pointed out, Trump went pretty far on immigration, lying about immigration, separating families, etc., so he basically radicalized a lot of Democrats and they were reluctant to talk about immigration restrictions. I think I started to feel that. So the Biden administration, and I've been talking to them about this, they sometimes like to claim that their policies are not the main reason for the increase in immigration, it's events that are happening around the world. But I think a series of events shows that the Biden administration was wrong about that. Because almost immediately after the Biden administration cracked down on immigration in the summer of 2024, traffic at the southern border completely plummeted. ”
He added that he believes the lax policies pursued by Biden were imposed on others and that Trump “played a big role.”
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