That’s because a repeat border crosser like this isn’t remotely like the people eligible for Biden’s new policy. Those half-million undocumented immigrants have lived and worked here for over a decade, have no criminal history, have deep ties to U.S. communities, are married to U.S. citizens, and are often raising American kids. Using a “gotaway” transient thug to smear these people itself reveals what an absurdity this whole propaganda trope truly is.
What’s more, as that Fox report established, this particular migrant was repeatedly kicked out under the Title 42 Covid-related health rule first instituted under President Trump and temporarily kept by Biden. This was a near-total ban on asylum-seeking that Trump initiated. Yet this alleged killer entered even though the tightest possible restrictions on asylum were in place. So you can’t blame this on supposedly lax asylum policies by Biden, either (he’s made them as draconian as possible, regardless).
Here’s the rub: Such migrants eventually get in precisely because they keep trying. Some percentage will inevitably be violent criminals, but that number has been really, really tiny under both Trump and Biden. Regardless, presidential “toughness” can’t do much here anyway. Such “gotaways” rose substantially under Trump, as the Cato Institute shows, apparently because Title 42 encouraged repeat efforts to cross. They did rise further under Biden but then came way down again (after Title 42 ended). Toughness didn’t dissuade crossings under either administration.
