Joe Biden’s border shutdown shows how politics around immigration have shifted to the right
As dawn breaks on a new era in American immigration policy, a young boy peels and eats a clementine in the gap between the border fence that separates the United States and Mexico.
A teenage girl wraps herself in a silver thermal blanket and a man passes his mobile phone through the metal slats in the fence for someone on the other side to charge.
They are the lucky ones, in a way, because they are among the final group of migrants to enter the United States before the introduction of a new border policy.
The executive order, issued by President Biden, will temporarily seal the border along the southern states if illegal crossings exceed 2,500 people a day, which they do on a regular basis at the moment.
The order had been a closely guarded secret, until it wasn’t. President Biden used the announcement to criticise Republicans in Congress for failing to pass a bipartisan bill on the border and defend his own immigration policy.
“This action will help us gain control of our border, restore order into the process,” he said. “If the United States doesn’t secure our border, there’s no limit to the number of people who may try to come here. Doing nothing is not an option, we have to act.”
It represented a sharp about-turn for a man who came to power criticising Donald Trump’s draconian action to curb immigration but is now making moves reminiscent of his predecessor.
Pic: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Proponents of the order say it will relieve an overwhelmed system. But critics say it will put the lives of genuine asylum seekers at risk.
Stakeholders on both sides of the political aisle say it is a politically cynical move, five months out from a general election when immigration will be a major factor in voters’ minds.
“It’s setting a very bad precedent,” says Lilian Serrano, director of Southern Border Communities Coalition, a non-government organisation.
Lilian Serrano, director of Southern Border Communities Coalition
“A president making decisions that are politically motivated to gain political points in an election year is more important for President Biden than respecting human rights? That is the message.”
Once the migrants are processed at the border in San Diego, now the busiest place in the country for illegal border crossings, they are bussed to the outskirts of the city and dropped at a roadside.
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Some of them have no idea which city they are in. One man, from Ghana, asks me how to get to New York, almost 3,000 miles away.
Durlei is trying to get to San Francisco
Durlei, a young woman from Colombia, is trying to get to San Francisco to be reunited with a friend.
She was a shoe shop owner in her home country but says she is seeking asylum from gang violence.
“I come here fleeing my country,” she says. “If Biden changes his laws I don’t know where I will go.”
Word has reached Aurelio, from El Salvador, about the new policy. “I’ve heard about the new order,” he says. “I feel fortunate to have arrived before it takes effect, because it’s my dream to be here.”
Children who cross the border unaccompanied are excepted from the new policy, as are victims of human trafficking.
Nevertheless, this is the most restrictive border policy by a Democrat president in decades.
It is a shutout which shows just how much the politics around immigration have shifted to the right.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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