Opinion: Trump And Biden Can Learn How To Address The Border Crisis From Each Other

Over the last five years, two presidents with polarizing political stances have been confronted with something that many are calling “the border crisis.” 

Claire Hansen wrote for U.S. News on whether or not the influx of migrants to the southern border has truly become a “crisis.” She quotes Theresea Brown, the managing director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, who says, “for Republicans the crisis is, ‘oh my goodness, many immigrants are coming to the border. We need to stop that.’ For Democrats – for the Biden Administration – the crisis is: People are coming to our border and we don’t have a humane way to manage that and treat them fairly.”

In comparing former President Donald Trump’s method of action toward the immigration crisis with the Biden Administration’s current handling of the issue, it is evident that Trump’s focus was more on doing the best for the American people and government policy, while Biden focuses on keeping humanitarian principles intact. 

The hard-to-swallow truth is that the immigration crisis must be handled with both administration’s tactics at the forefront. Biden and his administration can learn from the Trump Administration, and do better. To err on the side of legal treatment and abandon ethics and morality is detrimental. To err on the other side, where empathy takes precedence over the legal process, would be equally destructive. Both facets under consideration are part of “The American Dream.” The Land of Opportunity should be one justly governed and one that seeks the fair treatment and welcoming of foreigners.

In the “Zero Tolerance” policy, the Trump Administration prosecuted adults entering through the southern border for illegal entry. For NPR, Jaclyn Diaz explained that “children can’t be imprisoned with parents and other family members, so young kids were taken into federal custody – resulting in more than 3,000 children being separated from their families.” While the result sought by the Trump Administration – namely, prosecution for illegal immigration – was implemented well and strictly, it was done so at the expense of prying families apart. The number of immigrants at the border may have decreased, but the morality and character of the United States of America fell with it.

Parker, Miroff, Sullivan and Pager wrote for the Washington Post, reporting that Biden was ill-prepared to surge forward with new policies on immigration, as his administration is now facing the biggest upswing in 20 years, with a projected 2 million migrants at the border by the end of the year. This proves how much of a crisis this is and will continue to be. According to the Center for Migration Studies, Biden signed eight executive orders into place that would (and will, in time) change the climate of immigration for years to come.

It seems one of the motives of the president when embarking on his four-year term was to undo things that former President Trump did that, as stated above, were thought to be inhumane. In such attempts, Maurer reports for SHRM that Biden is attempting to be “more welcoming to immigrants and tackle the root causes that lead people to come to the U.S. without legal status.” It may be that the president wants to be empathetic and humane toward immigrants, but that should not give reason to abandon the legal process of citizenship. 

Most of the orders so hastily signed into effect on Jan. 20 pertained more to removing policies that posed the threat of inhumanity, while not implementing any protocols that would keep the good portions of those policies intact. So there may not be as many families torn apart, but there are now more immigrants at the border every day. For Fox News, Adam Shaw quotes Steve Scalise, a United States Representative for Louisiana, who says that the Biden Administration “cannot handle the surge of migrants, they are taking over military bases, the Dallas convention center, and the people on the ground are telling you they can’t control it.”

After surveying facets of both administrations, every person with a sense of compassion lets their imagination travel to “a perfect world.” In a perfect world, good policy and humane treatment of those foreign to the United States would coexist. In a perfect world, there would be no mistreatment of families under a Zero Tolerance Policy; there would be safeguards and better plans to house immigrants in custody. In a perfect world, the process of becoming a legal citizen would be short and to the point. But we don’t live in that world. Attempts can be made to imitate that world in the best ways possible, but something will fall by the wayside.

While Trump’s immigration policies “got the job done,” as some may say, they did not advocate so much for fair treatment. The quick response to this is that illegal immigrants should not be treated fairly because they have broken the law. While it is true they have broken the law and are strangers in a strange (to them) land, that does not mean they should be neglected and ripped from their families. 

Biden’s work is far from done, so it is difficult to make concrete commentary on what the immigration crisis will look like. Within his first 100 days of work, though, it seems that he may have too much on his plate. We can only hope that in the time to come, Biden implements policies that show care for illegal immigrants while not allowing the deterioration of the borders of the United States.

Justin Bower is an Opinion Writer.