A group of Democrats from split states who are all up for reelection in 2024 are remaining quiet as President Joe Biden contemplates enforcing a border enforcement strategy that they previously rejected under former President Trump.
There were rumors last month that Biden was contemplating resurrecting a Trump-era practice of detaining adult border crossers alongside the migrant children they bring with them.
In 2018, Sens. Bob Casey (D-PA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) joined additional Senate Democrats in denouncing the Trump administration’s proposal for a federal law that would permit the detention of adult border crossers as well as the migrant children they bring with them for an indefinite period of time.
The Senate Democrats wrote regarding the Trump regulation that it was “morally wrong” and “incompatible with fundamental principles,” labeling it “a disgrace to our great country and the American people.”
A number of Senate Democrats have sent letters to the administration pleading with officials to abandon the notion after it was reported that Biden was contemplating a similar strategy at the border. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT), along with Casey, Baldwin, and Brown, declined to endorse the statement.
According to Philip Letsou of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), “Democrats like Bob Casey, Sherrod Brown, and Tammy Baldwin spent the majority of their careers voting in lockstep towards their party’s open-borders strategy. They’re now hoping voters will simply forget their track record of putting American workers at risk.”
In March, more than 160,000 border crossers and illegal aliens were apprehended at the border, an increase after a small two-month drop. Biden’s revival of the Trump-era policy would coincide with this. The number of illegal aliens that successfully passed the boundary last month is not included in this calculation.
With the assistance of non-governmental groups, the Biden administration currently enforces a vast Catch and Release network that makes sure adult border crossers coming with migrant children are immediately released into the U.S. interior.
