Where is the outrage from white liberals? After 2 years, the Biden Administration’s immigration policy is very similar to the Trump Administration

March 23, 2023

by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

One of the campaign promises that the Biden candidacy put forth in 2020, was that US immigration policy would be more humane and just. In fact, the Biden campaign borrowed from the Obama campaign stating that there would be “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”

More than two years into the Biden Administration and there is little Comprehensive Immigration Reform, plus the overall immigration policy on the ground is anything but humane.

Below are a collection of 35 different articles and reports since the beginning of 2021, documenting the harsh realities of the Biden Administration’s immigration policy and practice. These articles and reports talk about human rights abuses to adults and children alike, the ongoing detention of immigrants, the brutality of US Customs and Border Patrol, the Administration’s use of private detention facilities, resuming construction of the Border Wall and the systematic denial of asylum to those who come to the southern border of the US through Mexico.

In many ways, the very same xenophobic, White Supremacist, anti-immigration policies that were so maligned during the Trump Administration are continuing under the Biden Administration.

What we haven’t seen happen, especially from white liberals, those that identify as progressives, and as members of the Democratic Party, is the same kind of outrage they displayed during the Trump years.

I remember attending several meetings in Grand Rapids right after the 2016 elections, where people were scrambling to organize against the rhetoric and then punitive anti-immigration policies of the Trump Administration. White liberal were coming to events organized by Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE, wanting to be part of the solution and wanting to respect the dignity of immigrants who were coming to the US, primarily because of the US economic and military policies in Latin America, which has exasperated the Climate Crisis, displacing even more people from that region.

It was always encouraging to see people show up for trainings with Cosecha and Rapid Response to ICE, take part in online action alerts, have discussions about offering sanctuary and participating in protests, marches and other forms of Direct Action.

So, where are these people now? Why are the public actions organized by Movimiento Cosecha to sparsely attended? Why does GR Rapid Response have difficulty raising Mutual Aid funds to support people impacted by ICE violence and other unjust immigration policies? Where is the outrage that we saw when immigrant children were in cages?

The only conclusion I can draw is that people really believe that because a Democrat sits in the White House that immigrants are no longer being abused, denied asylum or dying in the desert after crossing into the US. The only fundamental difference I can see, which is also documented in the 35 articles & reports linked below, is that the Biden Administration doesn’t use the same anti-immigration rhetoric that the Trump Administration did. What is painstakingly similar between the two administrations, is the immigration policy.

Lastly, it is also important to note that besides a Democrat in the White House since the beginning of 2021, the Democrats controlled the House and the Senate in those first two years, yet the immigration policy remained unjust and brutal. Again, I ask, where is the outrage, especially from white liberals?

(Note: the following linked articles and reports on US immigration policy in the Biden years, are listed from the most recent to the beginning of the Biden Administration in January of 2021.)

Left to Die: Border Patrol, Search and Rescue, & the Crisis of Disappearance

Joe Biden’s New Immigration Policy Is a Boon to Right-Wing Xenophobia

The Border Industrial Complex Goes Big Time

Biden Administration Takes Fresh Steps to Limit Access to Protection in the United States

Supreme Court Keeps Title 42, Causing Rise in Deadly Human Trafficking & Blocking Asylum Seekers

Number of Immigrants Under Punitive Surveillance Quadrupled on Biden’s Watch

BORDER WALL CONSTRUCTION RESUMES UNDER PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

The Border Patrol Has Vast, Largely Unchecked Powers That Are Expanding

In New Jersey, Activists Are Learning What “Abolish ICE” Means in the Biden Era

San Antonio’s Mass Migrant Deaths Are a Logical Outcome of Joe Biden’s Anti-Immigrant Policies

Tragedy in Texas: 46 Found Dead in Suspected Smuggling Attempt Amid Biden’s Harsh Border Enforcement

Biden Is Locking Up Thousands of Immigrants in For-Profit Detention Centers