The border has been an issue since Joe Biden moved into the White House, but Biden has virtually dismissed the border issues because the mainstream media has given him a pass.
Polling, however, is a different story. Biden is now significantly underwater on the border. He knows this will be a big issue during the election, so he finally seems ready to deal with the problem or at least make it appear as though he is going to do something about it.
Rep. Mike Johnson's (R-LA) first term as Speaker has been anything but smooth, and he knows that if he wants to keep that gavel if the GOP manages to hold power in the House, he is going to have to start to make a splash, which he just tried to do, calling for Joe Biden to use an executive order to get the border under control. To that point, he issued a formal letter to Biden, stating:
"While a bipartisan group of Senators has begun extensive negotiations over the past few weeks to try to find a compromise, they have not yet been able to finalize an agreement. Statutory reforms designed to restore operational control at our southern border must be enacted, but the crisis at our southern border has deteriorated to such an extent that significant action can wait no longer. It must start now, and it must start with you.
"I urge you to immediately take executive actions available to you under existing immigration laws to stem the record tide of illegal immigration."
Biden did not issue an executive order, but before he left for yet another vacation, Biden did announce that he was sending officials to the border to work with Mexico's government to try to get a handle on the situation. On December 21, 2023, Biden announced:
"I spoke with President López Obrador of Mexico regarding efforts to manage migration in the Western Hemisphere.
"More enforcement actions are urgently needed to reopen key ports of entry across our shared border. Our teams will convene in the coming days to further actions."
The situation at the border has been in decline since Biden took office, but it has become even more desperate with yet another massive surge this fall. To that point, Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-TX) stated:
"We are absolutely at a breaking point, beyond a breaking point.
"I'm tired of the do-nothings. We need help today. This is a hurricane, Category 6. This needs to end today."
The latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll shows that Biden dropped eight points on immigration since the last polling, now showing Biden at 38% approval. Mark Penn, chairman of the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, explained:
"Based on the polling on immigration, this is one of the key issues dragging down the president's reputation, and he needs to make progress on this issue or face increasing consequences."
This is clearly a move by Biden to improve his polling because he was not worried about the situation when he was close to 50% on the border. With his current approval rating hitting an all-time low in the latest Monmouth University poll (34%), Biden is clearly looking to nudge that number back up wherever he can.
The reality is that the border is an easy fix if Biden wants it to be, but I am not sure how extreme he is willing to go. If he completely shuts it down, the far left will start to come after him for mimicking a Trump immigration stance, so I would imagine he will just be looking to slow down the flow enough to convince liberal voters concerned about the border that he is getting it under control.
Considering that November set yet another record, with there being 242,418 encounters at the southern border, a number which is also the third highest all-time, only having been eclipsed twice (September - 269,735 and December 2022 - 252,315), if Biden gets those numbers down under 200,000, it will at least show progress and pacify the liberals actually concerned about our immigration numbers.
