Earlier today, President Biden signed an executive order that shuts
down asylum, asylum claims once they reach a certain level.
Our own Julia Ainsley has all the details.
Down here in McAllen, a border town in Texas, a
lot of things are continuing as usual.
You can see that just behind me at this bus
station.
Migrants are still boarding these buses and going to other
places in the country.
What will change effective today is that when more migrants
come across illegally, effectively crossing the Rio Grande River and
going to turn themselves into Border Patrol, they will not
be eligible for asylum unless they can prove that they
somehow meet a higher standard.
If they can prove that, they would face a high
likelihood of torture upon return if they have an acute
medical need here, if they're an unaccompanied child, for example,
these are all ways that they could be exceptions to
the rule, but otherwise, they cannot get asylum if they
cross the border illegally.
This is actually a page from President Trump's playbook and
one that was enjoined by the courts under that administration.
And so we can expect to see very swift action
from immigration advocacy organizations like ACLU and others who will
challenge this in court.
Another practical problem with this, I'm told by Border Patrol
agents, is that ICE and Border Patrol lack the manpower
to put this into place.
They will have to deport anyone who is not eligible,
and there will be so many people who will not
be eligible for asylum now, and they'd lack the space
to hold them in CBP facilities and ICE facilities, and
they lack the number of airplanes to deport them.
Furthermore, a huge, fast growing nationality coming across the border
of Venezuelans and Venezuela in large part refuses to take
back any of its nationals who are being deported from
the United States, which would create a huge problem for
the way this is supposed to go.
But for those who still want to cross legally, they
can continue to do so.
They can make an appointment through the CDP One app,
They can go through a legal port of entry and
life will continue for them.
This is all part of the Biden administration's strategy to
try to make it harder to cross illegally and open
up more pathways to cross legally.
Of course, we are hearing from some Republicans today who
are saying it's too little, too late.
And one might say, what have they done lately?
Our thanks to Julia down in Texas today.
I want to welcome former Democratic congressman, an old friend
of mine, Tim Ryan of Ohio, founder of the organization
We the People.
Glad to have you here tonight.
Mark McKinnon joins us, former adviser to both George W
Bush and John McCain.
And Larry Sabato is here director at the Center for
Politics at University of Virginia, where he is a professor
and presidential historian.
Tim, let's talk about this because Speaker Mike Johnson called
today's executive action window dressing.
And I, I'm not saying that we haven't been waiting
a while for something aggressive, but what in the world
have Republicans done at all on the border?
Anything.
And they had a chance.
There was a comprehensive bill that they had in the
Senate.
Senator Lankford, who I served in the House with, Good
guy, sincere guy, reached across the aisle.
I mean, you heard at the end there they were
talking about we're not going to have enough Border Patrol
to actually secure it.
It's because you need an act of Congress to appropriate
the money to hire more Border Patrol, which is what
the deal included.
So President Biden is now forced to do the executive
order with zero help from the Republicans.
But I think there's not a lot in politics.
It's obvious what's going on.
This is pretty obvious.
We had a bill bipartisan, Trump deep sixed it.
Now Biden's got to do the executive order.
And on what grounds could they possibly say this is
window dressing?
Well, I mean, you know, just go to your last
segment that the truth does not matter here.
It matters like what can they continue to repeat, get
in the echo chamber, drive their voters out and hopefully
persuade some people middle of the road voters.
But I think, you know, Biden had to do this.
It's not as strong as anybody wants because it's not
an act of Congress.
Mark, you and I have spoken a lot about the
border over the last couple of years.
What do you think of this move?
Is he now putting Republicans on the defense?
Well, listen, it shows that the Democrats, first of all,
they had a plan that Tim pointed out Republicans didn't
take advantage of because they wanted to use this issue
as a weapon because they know it's a they, the
system is broken.
I mean, listen, the actions that that President Biden did,
I think most people in America say, well, that sounds
pretty reasonable.
That doesn't sound like it's, it's too much.
And they know that there's a real crisis there.
And the problem for me with the Biden approach, it's
just been that through body language, through through not showing
up on the board, they've left it an open field
to Republicans who talk about it every single day.
Donald Trump's talked about it every single day since he
announced the first time.
And Biden just hasn't talked about it that much and
hasn't been down there that much.
You know, you could say that that's demagoguing the issue.
But but Republicans see that advantage and they've taken advantage
of my criticism too, has been that Democrats have plans
on the shelf.
DHS has a plan to distribute funds around the country
to different localities, to take the burden off the border,
to give resources to other cities who are willing to
take migrants.
And it's never been executed.
And I don't know why.
It's a great plan.
And, and so I just wish Democrats have a good,
they have a good bill that Republicans walk away from,
but they also have good plans in the show.
So today's a good start.
They just got to do more.
They got to talk about it more because it is
an issue and people care about it.
Well, they're doing it more.
The president is taking action.
Obviously, Larry, you don't need me to tell you it's
an election year and we know all sorts of voters,
a political voters, Democrats, Republicans from all over the country
are concerned about immigration.
It is a top issue.
Do you think the president's actions now will have an
impact, given how much Republicans have been banging on about
it for the last three years?
It'll have this impact.
It finally gives Democrats a complete answer.
It's a short, punchy answer that will enable Biden to
move to issues that Democrats can actually win on because
it certainly is an immigration.
So they can go to reproductive rights.
They could go to the preservation of the Republic.
But he needed something that would enable him to transition
to these better issues.
And now he has a complete answer.
It isn't just that Donald Trump killed the bipartisan immigration
reform, which would have been, I think, a very solid
way to move.
He can also say we've come up with this.
This is a reasonable solution.
And oh, by the way, here are the other issues
that really matter this year.
Again, Democrats are not going to win on immigration.
They need to change the subject, even though it's important
and people want to hear about it, but they need
to change the subject.
And there's a lot of reasons why I'm happy you're
here tonight.
But this one specifically, there's one group of people who
are not going to be happy about President Biden's action
today, and that is the more progressive members of your
party in Congress.
We're hearing from some of them, outspoken, unhappy with the
president.
What is your take on that?
Well, I think you got to understand we do have
to know who's coming in and out of the country.
There are real national security implications here.
And we need to have an orderly process.
I think most people in the country appreciate immigration.
We know we're a country of immigrants.
The problem you have when you talk to Republicans, you
talk to independents, they say, but you can't jump the
line.
The, the people that are waiting, many, many Democrats who
feel that way, right?
I mean, including myself and I think many, many others.
And so you can't let the tail wag the dog
here.
Of course, we don't want to be separating families.
That's why you want to have Joe Biden as president
implementing some of this stuff, not Donald Trump going through
the horrific things that we went through last time.
And I think the other and Larry's obviously the student
of this stuff.
The other line of attack is Trump's in it for
himself.
You talk about the trial.
You talk about.
I better write this down.
I haven't heard this argument before.
One more time.
You said Trump, yeah, is in it for himself.
And being in New York, why would you know anything?
I got it.
I got that.
And it just I think it plays into it.
It's like it's not about the country.
It's not about the border.
You're full of you know what?
And and this is just one more example.
So and then and then to those other issues.
But I think most people, we have to have a
solid border.
Immigration is good for the economy.
It adds to the GDP.
All of a sudden people go from, you know, not
paying in the Social Security, not paying in the taxes
to driving our economy, having more money in their pockets.
The unions can organize them and you're going to drive
up wages.
So there's a win argument here.
We just got to be aggressive.
It's actually stunning because President, former President Trump, who couches
himself the good guy for business, what he wants to
do mass deportation, devastating, devastating for our economy.
Mark, what is your take?
Some members of the Democratic Party, more left wing lawmakers
are unhappy with President Biden for taking this turn.
Well, it gets a page book out of the sister
soldier from Bill Clinton.
I mean, go ahead and, and, and make some people,
you know, feel some pain from the left that that
suggests to, you know, people in the middle that Biden's
taking some tough, some tough, some tough measures that needed
to be taken.
And, and the point is that, I mean, where the
progress is going to go to Donald Trump, who wants
to do a mass deportation.
The thing that attracted me to George W Bush was
largely his position on immigration was very compassionate about how
to pathway to citizenship.
There's nothing compassionate about Donald Trump's approach.
So listen, you, you, you may be unhappy with Biden's
approach if you're a super progressive on this issue, but
it's a reasonable position.
And listen, you want Joe Biden as president next fall,
not not Donald Trump, because going to be very unhappy
with what he's going to do.
Larry, let's go back to your last point, how you
had said Democrats want to make this point and move
on.
But breakdown, what does the polling say when it comes
to the border and immigration right now?
Because until now or until just a few months ago,
we always heard about the border from Republicans, less so
from Democrats, the ones who've actually taken action in the
last few months.
Yes.
And I think for years now, not just during Biden's
term, Republicans have been heavily favored whenever you discuss the
border or immigration.
Now, partly that's because Democrats have been afraid of the
issue.
And look, one thing that I think should be made,
one point that should be made is at least in
my experience, progressives in this era are not the equivalent
on the other side of the far right.
They are really unreasonable.
They will not compromise.
They will beat their party leaders to a poll if
it helps them get some little amendment passed.
You know, progressives, they do, they have more liberal views
than others.
Yes, they do.
And sometimes it can hurt.
And Tim Ryan ran a great race in Ohio because
he was a centrist.
It's it's tough to win as a centrist even in
Ohio anymore.
But still, it's the progressives are reasonable.
And as Mark was just saying, who the heck are
they going to vote for?
They're going to throw their votes away if they go
for RFK or one of the other three now independents
and 3rd party candidates.
And they're certainly not going to sit at home because
if they do, they're as guilty as anybody who votes
for Trump in the end.
They'll be reasonable, at least the vast majority will, and
they'll come back to Joe Biden.
So I'm not saying diss them.
I'm not saying treat them badly.
Just recognize that they're they're more pragmatic.
That's not a bad word.
They're more pragmatic than the far right is for the
Republicans.