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The Democrats’ Phony Border War
Leaders say they’re tired of the crisis, but they’re afraid of the solution.
By The Editorial Board
Oct. 5, 2023 6:33 pm ET
Democrats are taking matters into their own hands at the border, or so they say. The wild bunch of mayors heading toward the Rio Grande are still afraid of the one action that might help slow the flow of migrants: Putting pressure on President Biden.
Leaders from far north of the border are heading south as thousands of migrants continue to fill up their shelters. Mayor Eric Adams arrived in Mexico Wednesday to tell migrants that New York City has no vacancies, and he’ll spread the same word in Colombia and Ecuador over the weekend. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says he’ll visit Texas’ southern border soon to see the migrant issue firsthand.
Both men are feeling the pressure to do something as housing for migrants puts more and more strain on city budgets. Yet both avoid the topic of asylum law, which currently makes it easy for migrants to gain temporary legal status in the U.S. and remain in the country for years without a hearing.
Mr. Johnson denies that he wants to slow migration at all, and says he’s traveling merely to “assess the full situation.” Mr. Adams is tougher but leaves the harshest talk to his surrogates. “We need the federal government, the Congress members, the Senate, and the president to do its job: Close the borders,” said his chief adviser Ingrid Lewis-Martin on Sunday, with a clarity that still evades the mayor.
Democrats know that even modest asylum restrictions would draw fire from the left, so they stop short of asking President Biden to do it. Ask New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who ran for cover after daring to point out the asylum problem.
“We want them to have a limit on who can come across the border,” she said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “People coming from all over the world are finding their way through, simply saying they need asylum.”
That’s true, but saying so out loud drew progressive rebukes, and by Monday Ms. Hochul was backtracking. “With respect to what was said about the border, I have called for a more thoughtful, balanced national immigration—federal immigration—policy.” Watering down her call to reform asylum law to a “thoughtful, balanced” policy is ducking the issue.
With no federal reform on the way, their recourse is to blame Republicans. Hence the Governor’s swipe on Sunday at the GOP Representatives from her state, whom she says “refuse to work with President Biden and come up with a sensible border strategy.” And like Mayors Adams and Johnson, Ms. Hochul blames her migrant woes on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. He’s a convenient target, though the Lone Star State has sent about a third of the migrants who have turned up in Chicago and less a sixth of those in New York.
Each of these Democrats knows, or at least should, that the main obstacle to reforming asylum policy now is in their own party. Republicans would happily reform the asylum law but can’t without Democratic support—and that means leadership from the White House.
Border enforcement is the duty of the federal government, and Mr. Biden has considered nearly every solution except the asylum changes that might actually work. Migrants will keep filling the big cities until other Democrats start telling the truth about the real cause of today’s mass border crossings.
