By Alex Seitz-Wald -
NBC News
WASHINGTON - Ayanna Pressley, Democratic Representative from Massachusetts, called the Border Patrol "egregious and white supremacist."
His colleague Maxine Waters, a Democratic congressman from California, said it was "worse than what we witnessed in slavery."
After years of criticizing former President Donald Trump for his handling of the border, they
now censure the management of the Joe Biden Government
, which continues to deport Haitian migrants and other nationalities seeking asylum on the southern border of the United States under a controversial order of public health of the former Administration known as Title 42.
[The Secretary of Homeland Security says they have deported some 4,000 Haitian immigrants to their country]
Trump polarized immigration policy in such a way that it has complicated the president's leadership on the border.
For many,
any type of immigration measure can smell like 'Trumpism'
.
Many Republicans also consider that any attempt to reform immigration law amounts to giving away the country.
US President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington on September 16, 2021.Evan Vucci / AP
Biden is caught between Democrats who advocate a change in immigration laws and Republicans who insist he isn't doing enough to control the border.
"
President Biden needs to show moral clarity at this time,
" said Julián Castro, a former cabinet member of former President Barack Obama and a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. "If he doesn't, the coalition that elected him will collapse," he said.
Images of Border Patrol agents on horseback chasing Haitian migrants trying to cross the Rio Grande have shocked many of Biden's allies, who compare him to his predecessor and question his commitment to the broader reform bill.
[California removes the word 'alien' from all of its state laws]
National Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the images "horrible and gruesome" and the White House announced the suspension of horse patrols in the area.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been tasked with dealing with some border issues, released a reading of a call she had with Mayorkas, in which she spoke to her nominal subordinate in the same way that she would to a hostile foreign leader.
But none of this seems to have been of much use.
The main envoy of the Administration for Haiti resigned in protest at the "inhuman and counterproductive decision" to deport Haitian refugees
to his country, the poorest in America and going through a deep political crisis.
Many of the Haitians who remain in a shelter in Ciudad Acuña fear for their future
Sept.
26, 202101: 58
Republicans insist that Biden promotes "uncontrolled illegal immigration into the country," in the words of Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley during a hearing with Mayorkas.
The veteran head of the immigration advocacy group America's Voice, Frank Sharry, finds it all too familiar for a Democrat to see his dreams crushed by a media storm over an immigration hot spot.
"I've been in this debate for 40 years and it feels like a groundhog,
" Sharry said, noting that for decades all presidents have grappled with the waves of Haitian and Central American migrants.
In March, when another massive influx of migrants made headlines, many of the questions at Biden's first press conference were about the border.
The new president
defended his plan for a regional approach to stem the flow, fix the asylum system and "undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration
.
"
[This is how the land was left under the border bridge in Del Rio, Texas, where thousands of migrants camped]
But since then, the president has faced challenge after challenge, from pandemic to chaos over the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
His acceptance in the polls has diminished
, as have expectations of his internal legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, which has left little political capital to fight on one of the issues that most divide the country.
"
Politics finally won out over his political vision
," Sharry said.
The American promise
Biden is now in a position similar to that faced by Obama, who managed to be elected by positioning himself to the left of Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries, but
ended up being branded a "deporter-in-chief" for returning more immigrants than the presidents previous
.
Hundreds of migrants, many of them from Haiti, in a makeshift camp along the Del Rio International Bridge, Texas, on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. Julio Cortez / AP
Advocates for migrants criticize Biden for using the public health order promoted by Trump to reject them.
Fox News questions why they don't have to show proof of vaccination like New York restaurant customers do.
Republican and moderate Democratic congressmen have shown no interest in adopting Biden's comprehensive proposals, and no one believes that a large immigration reform package can be passed in this Congress.
