During one of the two debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump in 2020, the two candidates vying for the White House spent several minutes sparring on immigration policy. The exchange featured Biden going after the incumbent over his handling of the southwest border, including his attempt to implement controversial restrictions on migrants seeking the protective status of asylum.
“This is the first president in the history of the United States of America (who says) anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country. That’s never happened before in America,” Biden said. “You come to the United States and you make your case.”
Two and a half years later, with Biden serving as the nation’s 46th president, he became the second – by his math at least – to limit asylum in a similar fashion.
That move, along with other recent actions, illustrates how the president has changed tack on immigration since he was seeking the White House in 2020, prompted in part by the reality that attempted crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have surged under his watch. But politics undoubtedly are in play of late as well, and as a November rematch with Trump approaches and immigration has become a top issue for Americans, Biden is reportedly mulling even tougher border policies as he struggles to appease voters.
MORE:
“In a big picture, there’s a huge gap between what Biden committed to as a candidate and what he actually has done as a president,” says Karen Musalo, a professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.
Below is a look at what Biden promised on different immigration fronts amid the 2020 campaign, and how he has acted in those areas during his term.
Asylum
Beyond his comments at the debate, the president’s campaign focused on restoring asylum access for migrants after many attempts by the Trump administration to roll it back.
“I will secure our borders while ensuring the dignity of migrants and upholding their legal right to seek asylum,” Biden wrote in Foreign Affairs about a year before he took office.
While the president did take steps to do so initially, it wasn’t long before he went in a different – and more restrictive – direction. As part of plans to prepare for the aftermath of the Trump- and COVID-era Title 42 policy, for example, the Biden administration in May 2023 instituted a new rule........