Opinion | Why Biden Is Right to Curb Immigration

Many of us liberals now find ourselves in an awkward spot on immigration.

For years we have denounced draconian steps by Republicans to bar desperate migrants. But President Biden has now introduced his own tough steps to reduce asylum seekers, not so different from President Donald Trump’s approach.

The new measures may be overturned by the courts, but in the meantime many on the left are whacking Biden. Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, twisted the knife by suggesting that Biden was borrowing from Trump’s playbook: “By reviving Trump’s asylum ban, President Biden has undermined American values.”

Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, said, “President Biden’s craven embrace of failed Republican policies is a mistake that will only lead to more harm and dysfunction.”

Stephen Colbert needled the Biden camp by imagining what this will look like in liberal hands: “We’re going to seal the border, folks, but the wall is going to be gluten free, and the barbed wire will be pro-choice.”

I’m conflicted, finding myself caught between pro-refugee instincts and a practical recognition that the system wasn’t working: There was a torrent of illegal crossings, and the law provided a loophole that allowed people to claim asylum and stay indefinitely whether or not they warranted it.

I exist only because an Oregon family in 1952 sponsored my dad as a refugee from Eastern Europe. But I’ve reluctantly come to the view that Biden is doing the right thing with his clampdown. Let me explain.