Known for his tough immigration policy, 74-year-old President Donald Trump will soon be replaced by 78-year-old President-elect Joe Biden, whose refugee policy promises to open up the borders. With the U.S. in a serious recession from Covid-19, it’s difficult for Biden to open the U.S. borders to Central American refugees forming new caravans from Honduras and Guatemala to test the new president. Biden finished eight years with former President Barack Obama’s open-border policy, letting more immigrants into the United States without questioning differences between immigrants and political refugees. Many migrants leaving Honduras and heading north to Guatemala and Mexico, eventually to the U.S. have left because of poverty and poor living conditions, not necessarily political persecution. Whether refugees or immigrants, Biden will be under pressure to open the borders.
Biden will have to wait-and-see what happens to the U.S. economy before making any hard decision on refugee policy. If the country stays in recession in 2021, it’s going to be difficult to open up the borders, when American citizens continue to loose their jobs, suffer insolvency and endure homelessness. Forming a caravan in Honduras, a flock of young immigrants head north to the Promised Land. But what makes America the Promised Land compared to the sovereign states of Mexico, Central and South America? When it comes to what’s called “El Norte,” citizens of failed states seek to reunite with relatives already living in the United States. As Democrat socialists led by 31-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and 79-year-old Bernie Sanders push Biden in a socialist direction, the refugees and immigrants are fleeing social states, where failed economies cannot support their populations.
What makes the United State different is its capitalist economy, where jobs are created in various industries with a clear profit-motive, not one to tax workers into servitude, taking so much of workers salaries, there nothing left on which to survive. When it comes to the failed states of South and Central America, socialism is the common denominator that prevents the kind of job growth seen in the United States. But the more socialist the U.S. becomes, the more jobs are lost, especially when it comes to manufacturing jobs from Mexico, China and other Pacific Rim countries. Biden has a real dilemma denouncing Trump’s economic and trade policies while at the same time increasing the welfare state. African American activists, led by Black Lives Matter, are pushing Biden into backing reparations for African Americans, something the would break the sputtering U.S. economy.
Opening up the immigration floodgates would stretch the U.S. social safety net to the breaking point, letting more illegal immigrants make use of the welfare state, getting education and health care benefits. Running the biggest federal budget deficits in U.S. history approaching $5 trillion, Biden’s got some difficult choices to make about opening up U.S. borders. Trump’s get-tough immigration policy, building out the border wall, was a signature part of his legislative agenda. Biden did nothing but criticize Trump southern border policies, saying that Trump showed cruelty not seen in U.S. history. But history shows that there were more deportations under former President Barack Obama than under Trump for the same four-year period. Yet Democrats and the press did a good job of demonizing Trump, leaving voter alarmed by the White House separation polices at the Mexican border.
Watching new caravans forming in Honduras due to hurricane Eta and Iota shows how weather conditions, not just poverty, can push more immigration. “We lost everything, we have no choice but to go to the United States,” said an unnamed middle-aged man in Honduras with his wife and cousin. Hurricanes slammed into Sand Pedro Sula near the Guatemala border, driving residents out the area. Honduras and Guatemala lack emergency resources to deal with thousands of homeless citizens, unable to cloth or feed themselves without jobs and resources. Guatemalan insisted that any Hondurans crossing the border would require passports and Covid-19 tests before permitted to enter their country. Trump’s four years in office made it more difficult for Central American immigrants to form caravans and make their way into Mexico with more military blocking entry into the country.
Biden’s immigration policy will be tested early one when hundreds, maybe thousands, of Hondurans and Guatemalans try to push their way toward the U.S. border. If the economy continues to sputter, it’s going to be harder to justify and open border policy that lets more Central Americans into the U.S. Mexican President López Obrador provided some 15,000 troops to patrol the Mexican border, preventing Central Americans to crossing into the U.S.. With Biden set to takeover Jan. 20, 2021, more caravans have been forming, knowing his more “humane” border policies. But if Joe is anything like Obama, he’ll enforce U.S. border laws just like his predecessor. Flocking to the U.S. for economic opportunity, the rest of the world counts on a strong U.S. economy. Biden must carry the torch of a strong U.S. economy, not acquiescing to socialism that’s swept the Democrat Party. Without a thriving economy, the U.S. has nothing to offer world’s refugees and immigrants looking for a better life.
