Why a border deal may never be reached

Jan 12, 2024

By Myah Ward, Lauren Egan and Ben Johansen

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Every time Senate negotiators say they’re getting close to a deal, border talks hit another snag, often around one policy in particular: President JOE BIDEN’s parole authority.

The issue is deep in the weeds of immigration policy. But for weeks, it’s been a major sticking point in the White House’s attempt to unlock billions of dollars in foreign aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to see how negotiations clear this hurdle in the Senate unless Democrats and the Biden administration make major concessions on parole.

Which begs the question for many, including the politically initiated: what, actually, is parole authority?

Immigration parole, first established in 1952, has been used by every Republican and Democratic president since DWIGHT EISENHOWER. It allows the government to grant migrants temporary permission to live and work in the U.S., though there’s no path toward citizenship. And it’s been utilized for foreign policy purposes, humanitarian reasons or for significant public benefit.

“Parole is literally one of the oldest and most well-established immigration authorities used in a variety of contexts in Democratic and Republican administrations for decades,” said RAHA WALA, vice president of strategic partnerships and advocacy at the National Immigration Law Center. “It’s well-established and well-settled law.”

Biden has used the authority extensively, to airlift Afghans after the fall of Kabul, and to also admit tens of thousands Ukrainians after the Russian invasion. He’s also used it to take pressure off of the border. In January last year, the president announced a plan to admit 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, as long as they had a financial sponsor and flew to the country instead of arriving at the southern border.

It’s been a bright spot for Biden on a vexing issue. After opening these pathways, illegal border crossings plunged for these groups, according to government data. The Biden administration is actively fighting legal challenges to the policy in court, arguing that the loss of the program would actually produce the opposite of what Republicans want: worsening the border crisis.

“Parole is a make or break for the Biden administration,” said ANDREA FLORES, vice president for immigration policy and campaigns at FWD.US and a former White House official under Biden. “If they lose that authority, the situation at the border will become far more acute than even what we saw in December. It would be devastating for President Biden in an election year to lose this tool.”

While the White House desperately wants a bipartisan deal, Biden officials also know that eliminating this power would spell disaster in 2024, sending more migrants directly to an already overwhelmed southern border. Nearly 2 million people are in line for a chance to enter the United States via the legal pathway, according to an analysis from the Cato Institute’s DAVID J. BIER.

“We’re not interested in taking away tools that have a proven track record of success,” said Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) during a floor speech yesterday, taking a hardline against limiting parole while expressing openness to reforms.

Republicans have described the policy as a means for evading Congress in order to allow people into the country who otherwise wouldn’t have another way of entry. But Dems argue there’s a political motivation behind the GOP push, particularly when you examine the other policies the White House has been willing to swallow — from raising the credible fear standard in asylum to a new Title 42-like expulsion authority.

“The reason this isn’t happening right now in the Senate is because Republicans are demanding things that would make life much worse for Democrats at the border in 2024,” said a person familiar with the negotiations who was granted anonymity to discuss. “This isn’t that progressives are mad. This is, Republicans are like, ‘We want what we want, and we want to fuck up your stuff really bad in ’24.’ Inside the White House, they’re just like, ‘This would be a complete disaster.’”

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POTUS PUZZLER

Thanks to the White House Historical Association for this question!

Which president rode to his inauguration ceremony in an open horse-drawn carriage during a snowstorm?

(Answer at bottom.)

Photo of the Week

A protestor interrupts President Biden during a campaign event at Emanuel AME Church on Monday in Charleston, South Carolina.

A protestor interrupts President Biden during a campaign event at Emanuel AME Church on Monday in Charleston, South Carolina. | Getty Images/Sean Rayford

The Oval

STAND BY YOUR MAN: Biden on Friday said he maintains confidence in LLOYD AUSTIN, even as he described his defense secretary’s decision to not reveal his hospitalization as a lapse in judgment, our SAM STEIN writes.

“I do,” Biden told reporters during his swing today through Allentown, Pennsylvania. He was then asked if it was a lapse in judgment for Austin to not inform him. Biden responded, “yes.”

The president’s first public remarks since Austin cancer revelations earlier this week come after the U.S. conducted significant airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels Thursday night. Senior administration officials are insisting that Austin was crucial in carrying out the attack, even from his hospital bed. Our ALEXANDER WARD, ERIN BANCO, PAUL MCLEARY and JONATHAN LEMIRE report that officials insist Austin authorized the final decision to strike, and “was involved in all the discussions and meetings yesterday and was completely engaged in the planning.”

RELATED: Biden told reporters on Friday that Democrats who believe he needed congressional authorization for last night’s strike are “wrong,” and also that it’s “irrelevant” whether or not he designates the Houthis as a terrorist group.

“If they continue to act and behave as they do, we’ll respond,” Biden said in Pennsylvania after visiting several small businesses to highlight Bidenomics.

MOVING TO THE PALMETTO STATE: The White House said Biden will spend the weekend before the South Carolina Democratic primary visiting the state. The president’s swing will include giving remarks at the South Carolina Democratic Party’s first-in-the-nation celebration dinner in Columbia on Saturday, Jan. 27.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This announcement that student loan borrowers enrolled in the administration’s new SAVE plan will have their debt wiped. Borrowers who took out less than $12,000 in loans and have been paying it back for at least 10 years “will get their remaining student debt canceled immediately,” Biden said in a statement.

The move comes months ahead of schedule — the original roll out was planned for July — and will spotlight Biden’s SAVE plan to lower monthly costs for enrolled borrowers. Currently, 6.9 million people are enrolled, but it’s unclear how many will be eligible for next month’s cancellations.

Chief of staff JEFF ZIENTS and assistant press secretary ANGELO FERNÁNDEZ HERNÁNDEZ shared the news on X.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This new Gallup poll, released Friday, which shows that independents have constituted themselves as the most dominant voting bloc in the country. The poll found that an average of 43 percent of Americans identified as independent in 2023, while self-identified Democrats hit a record low of 27 percent since the Gallup poll began in 1988. The poll also found independents leaning slightly towards the Republican party.

“These declines, and the new low registered in 2023, are likely tied to President Joe Biden’s unpopularity,” JEFFREY M. JONES wrote for Gallup.

READY, AIM, FIRE: A pro-Biden super PAC, American Bridge 21st Century, is launching a $140 million ad campaign attacking former President DONALD TRUMP, WaPo’s MICHAEL SCHERER reports. The campaign will look similar to the group’s efforts in 2020 targeting working class voters, but with an emphasis on female voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The ads will focus on the president’s economic achievements, but also highlight Trump’s efforts to restrict abortion access and his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

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THE BUREAUCRATS

PERSONNEL MOVES: PAAWEE RIVERA is now special assistant to the president and chief of staff for the Office of Scheduling and Advance at the White House, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. He most recently was senior adviser to the intergovernmental affairs office and director of tribal affairs.

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Agenda Setting

CRACKING DOWN ON THE RICH: The Internal Revenue Service announced late Thursday that the agency has collected an additional $360 million in overdue taxes from delinquent millionaires, adding to the $122 million collected in October, MarketWatch’s ANDREW KESHNER reports. The Inflation Reduction Act authorized $80 billion to the IRS over a decade, but Republicans are pushing to redirect that funding elsewhere.

DOJ SEEKS DEATH PENALTY FOR SHOOTER: Federal prosecutors announced the plan to pursue the death penalty against the white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, in 2022, our ERIC BAZAIL-EIMIL reports. It marks the first time Biden’s Department of Justice has sought a death penalty sentencing, a break in the administration’s purported stance. Biden campaigned on abolishing the federal death penalty.

BORDER BATTLES: On Friday, the Biden administration told the Supreme Court that Texas is blocking U.S. border patrol agents from accessing parts of the U.S.-Mexico border, CNN’s DEVAN COLE reports.

Solicitor general ELIZABETH PRELOGAR wrote in court documents that the new barriers Texas erected this week have “effectively prevented Border Patrol from monitoring the border.” She argues that the barriers “reinforce” the court’s need to intervene.

A HUNTER VOTE: The House next week will vote to hold HUNTER BIDEN in contempt of Congress for defying congressional subpoenas, our JORDAIN CARNEY reports. The GOP conference will need nearly all its members to vote in line in order to make a referral to the Justice Department, Carney notes.

What We're Reading

Dean Phillips: MSNBC Is Blackballing Me — and It’s Joe Biden’s Fault (POLITICO’s Michael Schaffer)

Smaller events, fewer ties — Biden is heeding advice to loosen up (NBC’s Monica Alba and Mike Memoli)

How the Biden administration helped avoid a coup in Guatemala (WaPo’s Mary Beth Sheridan and Nic Wirtz)

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POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

President WILLIAM TAFT rode to his inauguration ceremony in an open landau during a snowstorm in 1909, according to the White House Historical Association.

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Eun Kyung Kim and Sam Stein.

A message from the Health Equity Coalition for Chronic Disease:

Obesity is the second leading contributor to preventable death in the United States only after smoking. For communities of color — who are disproportionately impacted by obesity — it’s time for immediate action.

Our leaders have the power to combat the obesity epidemic — starting with allowing Medicare to cover lifesaving, FDA-approved obesity medications.