‘Hail Mary after Hail Mary’: Biden administration struggles with border policy, fueling frustration
(CNN) — The Department of Homeland Security put together a plan months ago to deal with thousands of migrants arriving at the border: flying some of them to cities deeper inside the US for processing.
2022-10-20 17:18:17 - VI News Staff
But the plan is dead for now, officials tell CNN, in part after the White House grew hesitant over the complicated logistics.
It has been an endless cycle since President Joe Biden took office, according to multiple administration officials and sources close to the White House. Agency officials dream up a plan but then struggle to get White House approval, even as the problem compounds and Republicans step up their criticism.
Frustration is mounting, too, especially among those on the front lines.
“Everything seems to influence each other,” one Homeland Security official told CNN. “Things develop. People change their minds. They lose one battle, and they do this instead.”
“I think they’re at the point where it’s Hail Mary after Hail Mary,” the official added.
As border arrests remain high, officials are grappling with how to stem the flow of migration – resulting in a constant churn of ideas, including processing migrants further from the border.
“Interior assistance and community support is something the White House is only serious about discussing when encounter rates rise,” another Homeland Security official told CNN, adding that additional big policy changes aren’t expected until after the midterm election.
The process is often bogged down by a back and forth between the White House and DHS. The department, under pressure to mitigate the situation on the US-Mexico border, floats proposals to the White House, which in turn asks for additional information, fueling frustrations between the two, sources told CNN. Disagreements and questions over policy, including interior processing, also bubble up among officials within DHS.
“These are areas that have we have been working through together,” a source familiar with internal discussions said, adding that there may be varying opinions across agencies as well as within them.
“There are always differences of opinions to work through,” the source added.
And last week, one significant plan came to fruition: The administration announced a humanitarian parole program for Venezuelan migrants while also expanding the use of the controversial Trump-era pandemic emergency restriction on the border.
“Encouraging robust debate, hearing different ideas, and getting lots of expertise before making policy decisions that impact millions of lives is a feature, not a bug,” said Abdullah Hasan, a White House spokesperson, in a statement. “And it is through this smart, deliberative, and collaborative approach that we have seen significant progress in rebuilding the immigration system the prior Administration gutted.”
A DHS spokesperson maintained the administration is “unified,” and defended the administration’s response to what it called a “broken and dismantled immigration system” it inherited from the Trump administration.
“This Administration is unified in its commitment to enforce our laws and secure our border, while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system; discussion and a diversity of ideas are not just expected but essential as we develop real solutions on an issue of this complexity,” the spokesperson said.
“The administration has effectively managed an unprecedented number of noncitizens seeking to enter the United States, interdicted more drugs, and disrupted more smuggling operations than ever before, all while reversing the cruel and harmful policies of the prior administration,” the spokesperson added.