The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
Before I had kids, I can remember thinking, as I watched a mom struggling with her toddler in the grocery store: I won’t ever find myself in such a predicament. I’ve read a ton about effective parenting strategies. I will know what to do. It’s simple.
Eight years into motherhood, I recognize the absurdity of such a thought. In parenting, there are factors and considerations you don’t realize until your kid is throwing a tantrum in aisle 9.
That’s when your high ideals fade away, and the “simple tricks” heralded by all the “parenting experts” go out the window very quickly. Because, reality.
Governing is the same way: There are challenges you don’t truly appreciate until you’re in the thick of it. And, of course, you never imagined that your proposed solutions, so seemingly simple and straightforward, might actually fail — sometimes spectacularly.
That’s the first thought that crossed my mind when I read a headline about how the Biden administration is considering restoring the Trump-era immigration policy of family detention — a policy that President Joe Biden vehemently criticized during his campaign and swiftly ended after taking office.
Reality seems to have set in for the president, along with the realization that there aren’t any easy fixes and that many of his idealized, progressive border policies have only exacerbated existing problems.
This reality includes months and months of record border crossings, increased violence along the Texas-Mexico border, and the bombshell story that many of the migrant children released into U.S. custody (under Biden-era policy) end up with sponsors who force them to work full-time jobs in violation of federal law.
The approach to migrant families crossing the border illegally that he once called “pretty simple” actually creates even more complications.
And two years of administration officials sparring with border governors have proved to be folly as well.
The risky but ultimately genius political maneuver by Gov. Greg Abbott, who bused hundreds of migrants to northern “sanctuary cities,” also proved effective at driving home the practical challenges of having a porous border.
A window into the practical consequences of oversimplifying our nation’s border challenges was opened, as Texas problems became New York City and Chicago problems, too.
It’s probably safe to assume that behind closed doors, there is pressure on the Biden administration to take some definitive action. That seems evident in the flurry of new policy proposals coming out of Washington.
Indeed, only last month the administration announced a proposed rule that would establish “a rebuttable presumption of asylum ineligibility” for anyone who passes through another country to reach the U.S. border with Mexico without first seeking protection there.
While the rule would offer a few exceptions to migrants in extreme circumstances, it is otherwise very similar to another vilified Trump-era proposal that was struck down by a federal court.
News of the possible policy reversal is a trial balloon and not yet a decisive policy change. The administration is testing the waters to see just how angry its most progressive allies will get.
If the musings of MSNBC analysts and op-ed writers in progressive journals are any indication, the pushback will be fierce.
But the return of family detention will be only one of many immigration proposals the Biden administration will tease before Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the southern border for public health reasons, expires May 11, when illegal entries are expected to soar.
Whether the Biden administration’s apparent immigration policy reversals are an attempt at triangulation as the presidential campaign draws closer or just a trial balloon that will pop all too quickly, it’s evident that the realities of governing don’t fit nicely onto a bumper sticker.
Even for Biden, nothing is “pretty simple” when it comes to managing the border.
