Tangle - Biden's new border plan.

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

President Biden has announced a tougher stance on immigration at the border, saying the U.S. would begin turning away Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans who cross the border from Mexico illegally. Under the new rules, migrants who come to the U.S. without first asking for asylum in the countries they travel through will be denied asylum and deported, a nearly identical plan to one the administration has used to drastically reduce the number of Venezuelan migrants traveling to the U.S.You can read today's podcast here, today’s “Under the Radar” story here, and today’s “Have a nice day” story here.You can find our previous coverage of the border and immigration here. We also answer a listener's question about the economy under Democratic vs. Republican presidencies and discuss Timothy Noah's past writings on the matter, available here. Today’s clickables: Quick Hits (2:05), Today’s Story (3:54), Right’s Take (7:55), Left’s Take (12:33), Isaac’s Take (17:07), Your Questions Answered (21:56), Under the Radar (24:45), Numbers (25:32), Have A Nice Day (26:24).You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited by Zosha Warpeha. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about Biden's new border plan. He has been visiting the border. He launched a new plan to handle some of the migrant encounters

that are happening at a record pace. We're going to talk about that plan, what people are saying about it, all that good stuff. Before we jump in though, I do want to give you a quick heads up. On Friday, we're going to be publishing one of our most popular editions of the year, what we got right and wrong in 2022. I'm going to be reviewing my writing and trying to give us some honest grades on our coverage. If you've been around for a while, you've probably seen one of these editions before. People tend to really love them. If you remember a Tangle podcast or newsletter that got something really right or really wrong or is worth reviewing, feel free to write in Isaac, I-S-A-A A C at readtangle.com and make your case.

We're looking for some submissions of stuff to tackle. I already have six or seven newsletters. I think I'm going to break down, but you know, the more the merrier. I'm always interested in seeing how our writing held up. And a quick reminder, as always, Friday editions are still subscribers only in the newsletter. I know many of you podcast listeners want us to start converting those to podcasts. It is on our roadmap. It will happen. We are going to start thinking about ways to kind of paywall maybe that podcast every week or tie that into a subscription in the newsletter. It's not as simple as it sounds, unfortunately, but we are going to figure that out, I promise. All right, with that out of the way, we'll jump in with our quick hits.

First up, Representative Katie Porter, the Democrat from California, announced she was going to run for Senate in 2024, even though 89-year-old Senator Dianne Feinstein is yet to announce her retirement. Number two, this morning the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, suffered an outage of its real-time flight information, prompting a halt to all domestic flights for roughly two hours. The halt has been lifted and the agency says it is investigating. Number three, the Pentagon announced that roughly 100 Ukrainian troops will come to the U.S. to train to use our Patriot Air defense system ahead of its delivery. 4. Allen Weisselberg, the longtime Trump Organization chief financial officer, was sentenced to five months in prison for charges related to tax fraud while he was at the company. 5. At least 17 people have been killed in California as record rainfall continues to cause flash flooding and damage across the state.

Biden unveiled a new border plan today, urging migrants to apply to enter the U.S. legally. The new border plan today urging migrants to apply to enter the U.S. legally. The new policy focuses on people migrating to the U.S. from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Do not, do not just show up at the border. Stay where you are and apply legally from there. Starting today, if you don't apply through the legal process, you will not be eligible for this new parole program. As we mentioned at the top of this newscast, President Joe Biden will be in El Paso tomorrow. He plans to discuss a new immigration parole plan. The night team's Alyssa Cole spoke with an immigration law professor who says this

new policy could have devastating effects. President Biden visited the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas for the first time during his presidency. He observed border officials as they searched vehicles for drugs, money, and other contraband, then walked along a metal border fence separating El Paso from Ciudad Juarez. Finally, he stopped at the El Paso Migrant Services Center. During the highly controlled visit, Biden did not encounter any migrants, despite El Paso being the biggest corridor for illegal crossings. However, his motorcade did drive along an area of the border where migrants were visible on the Mexican side. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the Republican from

California, criticized the trip as a photo op, while El Paso County Judge Ricardo Salmaniego welcomed Biden but said a recent lull in arrivals prevented him from seeing the real challenges they are facing. Biden's visit to El Paso came just days after he announced a tougher stance on immigration at the border, saying the U.S. would begin turning away Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans who cross the border from Mexico illegally. Under the new rules, migrants who come to the U.S. without first asking for asylum in the countries they travel through will be denied asylum and deported, according to the Associated Press. It is nearly identical to a plan the administration has used to drastically reduce the number of Venezuelan migrants traveling to the U.S.

Do not, do not just show up at the border, Biden said. Stay where you are and apply legally from there. Now, the U.S. says it will accept 30,000 people per month from these four nations combined over the next two years. The government says it will offer the ability to work legally as long as they come legally, pass background checks, and have eligible sponsors in the U.S. The new plan immediately drew criticism from both asylum and immigration advocates, as well as many conservative commentators.

President Biden correctly recognized today that seeking asylum is a legal right and spoke sympathetically about people fleeing persecution, Jonathan Blaser, the American Civil Liberty Union's Director of Border Strategy, said. But the plan he announced further ties his administration to the poisonous anti-immigrant policies of the Trump era instead of restoring fair access to asylum protections. Despite keeping Title 42, the Trump-era health law that allows the U.S. to quickly expel migrants, in place, there have still been record numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during Biden's term. There were over 2.38 million encounters in the fiscal year that ended September 30th, the first time that number topped

2 million. The new policy could legally allow as many as 360,000 migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti to enter the U.S. each year. Still, that number is well short of the number attempting to cross the border by foot, by boat, or by swimming. In November alone, the Associated Press reported 82,286 migrants from those four countries were stopped at the border. Today, we're going to take a look at some reactions from the right and the left to Biden's border visit and the new policies. And if you are interested, you can find our previous coverage of the border and immigration with a link in today's episode description. All right, first up, we'll start with what the right is saying. The right is critical of the plan, arguing that it is illegal and will encourage more migrants to come north.

arguing that it is illegal and will encourage more migrants to come north. Some say the plan is going to create an entirely new immigration system that will invite hundreds of thousands of migrants here each year. Others argue that Biden is circumventing the legislative process and shortchanging those trying to immigrate legally. In the New York Post, George Fishman said the plan disregards the rule of law and Congress. The historical record is clear. In 1952, rule of law and Congress. The historical record is clear. In 1952, Congress gave the executive the statutory power to temporarily parole aliens into the United States in emergency cases, such as the case of an alien who requires immediate medical attention or a witness or for purposes of prosecution. Starting in 1956, presidents of both parties, with the notable exception of former President Donald Trump,

have used the parole power to do an end run around the immigration laws that import many thousands of otherwise inadmissible aliens, often because they consider them refugees, he said. Until Thursday, Biden's administration was doing so under the guise of relative secrecy for Mexicans and Central Americans. But Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security and the White House both issued Orwellian press releases announcing new border enforcement measures to improve border security and create additional safe and orderly processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans fleeing humanitarian crises. Essentially, Biden plans to parole up to 30,000 a month to reside and work legally in America,

or 360,000 a year, he said. We well know that the aliens are never going to return home. Of course, these numbers are subject to change. And, of course, they will be rigorously vetted, just like Biden's Afghan parolees who were rigorously vetted until it turns out they weren't. In The Federalist, Margot Cleveland said Biden is taking illegal immigration to a whole new level. President Biden has finally found a solution to address the surge in illegal crossings at the southern border. Tell the tens of thousands of aliens unlawfully entering the United States from Mexico that they can come to America legally if they instead fly to a port of entry in the interior of the country, she said. The scam, though, is layers thick, both legally and politically. And to reach the core truth, one must first unpeel the specifics of the newest plan buried in the Department of Homeland

Security's official notice of the changes. Each notice summarizes the Biden administration's supposed solution to the flooding of the southern border, which, in short, consists of allowing, on a monthly basis, a total of 30,000 aliens to enter the United States legally if they are Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, or Venezuelan nationals. To qualify, aliens must have a U.S.-based supporter, which could be a non-governmental entity or a community-based organization and must provide for their own commercial travel to an air, port of entry, and final U.S. destination. National security and public safety vetting are also required, as well as any additional public health requirements such as vaccinations,

Cleveland said. But how is it that illegal alien border crossers can become lawful non-citizens by just jumping through a few hoops and flying to the interior of the country rather than sneaking over the southern border? They can't. And in crafting its latest immigration plan, the Biden administration is again acting lawlessly. In the Washington Examiner, Simon Hankinson called it an abuse of power. The Immigration and Nationality Act gives the Secretary of Homeland Security

discretion to parole aliens into the United States temporarily on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. It explicitly adds that the Secretary may not use this power for an alien who is a refugee unless there are compelling reasons in the public interest to do so, Hankinson wrote. This is because we already have a U.S. refugee admissions program.

Parole was meant to be used sparingly. In most previous administrations, only a few hundred foreigners were approved each year after their applications were carefully reviewed. Previous presidents have abused parole, but Biden is doing it on an industrial scale. He claims to be acting because Congress won't, which is to say they won't pass his immigration reform bill by granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and thus encouraging millions more to enter illegally or overstay their visas. But when he came into office, Biden undid every program the Trump administration had successfully used to reduce illegal entries, Hankinson said. Biden is using parole programs

to create a parallel immigration system. In practice, it allows millions of people to cut ahead of family and employment applicants waiting in the legal immigration line for a visa. Alright, that is it for the rightist saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. The left is mixed about the plan, with some arguing Biden had to do something and others saying it is still cruel and ineffective for too many. Some say Congress has left Biden little choice after its refusal to address immigration for over three decades. Others say Biden's plan is just Trump's policy dressed up in liberal rhetoric. The Washington Post editorial board said Congress left Biden little choice. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond

Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. It's an imperfect fix and much less than needed. Only Congress can fix a badly broken system that was last fundamentally overhauled in 1986. President Biden's initiative, unveiled Thursday, builds on a narrow legal pathway for Venezuelans to enter the United States, in place since last fall, dramatically expanding it to include migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Haiti, who have been driving the current border

surge and now account for roughly a third of all legal crossings, the board said. As many as 360,000 migrants annually from all four countries will be granted entry and two-year work permits if they reply remotely via an app generally from their home countries. The Biden administration also announced that, effective immediately, citizens of those countries who enter the United States without permission or even cross into Panama or Mexico on their way north will be banned from this parole program, they said. Many will be expelled to Mexico, which has agreed to take 30,000 of them monthly and be subject to a five-year ban on re-entry to the United States. That's less than 40% of the Cuban, Nicaraguan, Haitian, and Venezuelan migrants border agents encountered in November, but the administration is hoping its new policy will be an effective

deterrent. It has been in the case of Venezuelans already covered under the policy. The number of illegal border crossers coming from that country has plunged some 70% since the government launched the program for them in October. In The Intercept, Natasha Leonard said Biden's plan drapes Trump policies in liberal rhetoric. The United States' border regime is cruel, whether or not its maintenance is enforced by a president spewing racist slurs or a president appealing to the need for safe and orderly processing while he announces a plan to turn away thousands of migrants en masse, as President Joe Biden did on Thursday, she wrote. The same transit ban policy is already in place for migrants from Venezuela, an extension of the Title 42 measure deployed by the Trump administration in the first year

of the pandemic as a way to turn away migrants under the guise of public health. In some nine months under Trump, nearly half a million people were removed under the law, keeping the law around for two years. The Biden administration has already used it to deport over two million people. The wealthiest country in the world could respond to this mass movement by working with direct service providers on the ground and providing sufficient resources to swiftly resettle those fleeing political turmoil, turmoil for which the U.S. carries significant historic responsibility, she said. Instead, the burden of this order is being placed on those fleeing for their own survival, with the alleged right to claim asylum at port of entry

reserved only for those with the ability to apply and secure a U.S. sponsor before they reach the border. In the Miami Herald, Fabiola Santiago said Biden has finally stopped looking the other way. With a quarreling, do-nothing Congress as a backdrop and an unrelenting number of asylum seekers arriving every day, the Biden administration finally has taken serious steps to address immigration to South Florida and the Mexico border. Months of record-breaking arrivals later, even Democrats are conceding, privately and publicly, Months of record-breaking arrivals later, even Democrats are conceding, privately and publicly, that the levels of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan immigration is impossible to sustain,

both politically and in terms of resources, she said. Yet, without a Congress willing to overhaul the broken immigration system, and Americans increasingly upset over illegal crossings, what other choice did Biden really have? Republicans constantly use xenophobia to score political points. They're united in the desire to see Biden fail at everything. Unfortunately, the most tragically affected by the change in policy will be people caught in route, risking their lives at sea or on dangerous multi-country treks to flee collapsing homelands like Haiti and failing regimes like Cuba's and Nicaragua's, she said. Will domestic immigration policy make any difference when the root causes of mass migration remain in place at home?

There's less of an incentive to come here illegally with the opening of legal avenues, but poor people from remote towns and provinces may not have the access nor the ability to articulate need, and surely they will be the first in line for expulsion under Biden's repatriation rules. Alright, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to my take. Over the last few years, I have been making the argument that Biden or Congress needs to do something, anything, to address what is happening at the border. In many of my past Tangled newsletters, I've shared my opinion that overhauling immigration should start with more judges and more expansive asylum services

to handle the surge of migrants at the border. I still don't see a better path forward for an orderly, humane system that promotes legal immigration. However, I think it's only fair to start by giving Biden kudos for taking some action. Is it too late? Yes. Are there huge problems with the plan? Yes. Is it the plan I would have used? No. But with absolute silence on the two actually solid immigration plans being negotiated in the Senate that we covered in December, I'm glad Biden is at least doing something. Real plans, real visits, real dialogue. So here's the good news. This plan isn't brand new and it isn't concocted out of thin air. It's basically identical to the plan

the Biden administration used for Venezuelan migrants, and that plan has been pretty effective. Venezuelan migrant encounters dropped 35% in the first month following the plan's enactment, and it has reduced the legal immigration from Venezuela by 70% overall, according to the latest Customs and Border Patrol data. The timing is also pretty good economically. The U.S. is in desperate need for workers. I believe the evidence that immigrants are good for the economy is overwhelming, as are the findings that they don't reduce wages for native-born workers. So, if migrants are coming from these four countries in a legal fashion, being vetted, and being given work permits, that could help address our labor shortage, which is worsening inflation. All of this is positive. The bad news

is basically everything else. From a legal perspective, the rule looks unlikely to survive a court challenge, and as the Washington Post gingerly put it, sidesteps long-established law and treaty obligations granting migrants the right to make asylum claims when they arrive on U.S. soil. The commentators we cited from the right made strong cases of their own that Biden is basically inventing a parallel immigration system to the one we have now, and I think they are mostly right. The Supreme Court's review of Title 42 this summer is another complicating factor, as overturning it would remove some of the legal justification for quickly expelling many of the migrants who break the new rules. Of course, Biden is simultaneously fighting that rule in court while also using it

to great effect on the border, a contradiction that illustrates his hypocritical and often confounding stance on immigration. Then there's the humanitarian side of all of this. I assume the reason this plan was effective with the Venezuelans is that very few have the means to follow the rules in place, which would require flights, money, sponsors, etc. Immigration like this is such a difficult and fraught topic because the fundamental problem isn't our immigration policies, it's that millions of people are fleeing violence, political persecution, horrid economies, and poor living conditions. People don't climb onto rafts to float from Cuba to Florida or hike thousands of miles through arid deserts and dangerous nations just to come here and join MS-13 or raise hell. By law, we are supposed to open our borders to those fleeing persecution,

not simply those who are living in abject poverty. But here's the rub. Abject poverty is often tied so closely to gang violence or political unrest or humanitarian crises that the line for what is and isn't persecution or grounds for asylum is often very blurry and difficult to find. Someone living in conditions that compel them to risk their life and freedom to take a 3,000-mile journey north to a world they know nothing about is quite obviously fleeing something severe. But whether that something legally qualifies them for our definition of asylum is another question. And it's why I have always said we need more judges and lawyers to fairly adjudicate these claims.

And, as I like to reinforce, the vast majority of these migrants want work, they want a better life, and they want to advance their family's well-being. These new rules are going to hurt the poorest people the most. Those who don't know about them and continue to cross illegally then get barred for five years from taking the now quote-unquote legitimate route. The migrants who will download apps, apply online, or can pay a sponsor or airfare to travel to a proper port of entry, all of them will be the most well-off of a population that is not very well-off. And the cruelty of this reality is a legitimate criticism from the immigrant rights groups

hammering Biden right now. So, am I happy Biden is doing something, anything to try to address the border crisis? Yes. And there are some clear cut positives about this plan. But I have a hard time seeing it lasting legally. And it's well short of anything that will improve our immigration system, promote humane treatment of migrants, or resolve our domestic disputes over immigration. All right, that is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered. Today's question is from Luke in Seattle, Washington. Luke said, In the November 15th newsletter, What the Latest Inflation Numbers Mean,

in the What the Left is Saying section, you quoted Timothy Noah of the New Republic as writing, Republic as writing, quote, as I've written before, the economy consistently runs better under Democratic presidents, and that includes lower inflation, end quote. I've heard this claim before, but never done a deep dive into researching it. Do you feel this is an accurate claim? And if so, or if not, how do you define our economy running well? Okay, Luke, I'm going to cop out basically immediately on this question. So I'm not going to be able to answer this here. I think a good economist could probably write a whole book on this topic. And frankly, I'm sure many of those books exist. The fundamental issue with answering this is twofold. One, presidents or members of Congress who enact laws are often out of office when the impact of

those laws truly take hold. So Republicans could pass tax cuts that may lead to growth under Democrats in the White House and the economy overseeing this boom years later. Number two, neither the presidents nor Congress has sole control over the economy, so attributing certain economic booms to presidents or Congress is also kind of fraught. Timothy Noe's past writing is a top source for the argument that Democrats are better. In a piece that we'll link to in today's episode description, and is linked to in our newsletter, he makes a compelling case that based on objective economic data, Democratic presidents have overseen much stronger economies. For instance, he writes that 13 of the 17 recessions of the last 100 years happened under Republican presidents. The four presidents with the biggest growth in GDP since Franklin Roosevelt were all Democrats.

Clinton, Obama, and Biden in his first year all reduced the deficit, and historically Republican presidents have run up larger deficits than Democrats. Those are all good arguments. But again, sometimes Democrats are serving with a Republican Congress. Sometimes laws passed by presidents have bigger impacts in the future. Sometimes external factors, think COVID, have huge impacts on the economy that are totally unrelated to government policy. It's just very hard to parse this data based only on, quote, who is president.

To your final point, I've long argued that employment is one of the few metrics we use to define a good economy that I find actually helpful. The GDP, the S&P 500, and a good economy that I find actually helpful. The GDP, the S&P 500, and other popular metrics often leave me wanting more. If it were up to me, we'd evaluate the economy based on things like how many Americans make rent each month, how much savings Americans have, how many jobs people are working to make ends meet, wage growth adjusted for inflation, and things like homelessness. I've been saying that for years. That's just my personal perspective,

but you can take it or leave it. Alright, that is it for our reader question, which brings us to our Under the Radar section. Senior Biden officials are looking to end the emergency designation for COVID as soon as this spring, sources recently told Politico. The decision is not final, but it would trigger a complex restructuring of major elements of the federal response to the pandemic. It would also shift the responsibility of vaccination and treatment largely to the private industry. Officials are expected to quietly extend the

emergency declaration on Wednesday, that's today, before it expires for another 90 days. The decision comes at a time when COVID cases and the number of people dying with or from COVID is again rising across the U.S. Politico has the story and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. These are all numbers about our main topic today. The number of unique individuals encountered on the southwest land border in November was 204,155, according to CBP data. The percentage increase that number represented from the month prior was 4%. The number of those individuals who were from Cuba or Nicaragua was 68,044. The number of those individuals who were from Cuba or Nicaragua was 68,044. The number of those individuals from Mexico and northern Central America was 58,559.

The number of those individuals who were from Venezuela was 6,232. The number of migrants from Venezuela encountered at the border in October was 20,806. The number of migrants from Venezuela encountered at the border in September was 33,494. All right, and last but not least, our have a nice day section. Pathways Care Farm is 13 acres of land tucked away in the back of a housing estate. The farm gives vulnerable people with mental health issues or learning disabilities an opportunity to learn farming with hands-on activities like cultivation, planting, and animal husbandry. In 2020, director Jeff Stevens insulated what used to be the coldest barn on the farm to turn it into a cafe. But now, that building, equipped with a log burner,

a piano, and a kitchen, is turning into something else, a community space for local people staying warm during England's cost of living crisis. BBC Radio has the beautiful story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, if you want to support our work, please go to retangle.com slash membership. And if you want to do something, spread the word about the podcast, you can give us a five-star rating anywhere you rate podcasts, or you can simply just send the podcast to a friend, tell them to subscribe. All of that really helps us.

We'll be right back here same time tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited by Zosia Warpea. Our script is edited by Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and Bailey Saul. Shout out to our interns, Audrey Moorhead and Watkins Kelly, and our social media manager, Magdalena Bokova, who created our podcast logo. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75.

For more from Tangle, check out our website at www.tangle.com. We'll see you next time. begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.