Thread by @SarahPierceEsq

The lead point in this article is an important one: while we haven't reached record numbers of children (that may change this month), the speed at which the number arriving has increased IS a record.

And it occurs as government capacity has been limited by the pandemic.

https://twitter.com/NickMiroff/status/1374157456524390407

But there is an implication that Biden is doing something different than his predecessors by not sending the kids back. That's not quite true.

In 2019 Trump implemented a litany of deterrence-focused asylum changes, but none affected the arrival & processing of UACs.

Rather, Trump's pressure on Mexico to increase enforcement likely made the difference in bringing down the numbers.

The Trump administration did issue the Title 42 order that led to expulsions of kids, but that wasn't until March 2020-- months after the arrivals had dipped.

And in 2014, the Obama administration did implement the "rocket docket" to (in theory) accelerate the processing of kid's court cases. But it failed for a variety of reasons.

Recent studies confirm, very few kids were deported: dhs.gov/immigration-st…

Instead, like Trump, the Obama administration leaned on Mexico to increase enforcement, and it worked.

So rather than be more generous than his predecessors, Biden is following in their footsteps...

reuters.com/article/us-usa…

He is depending on Mexico to limit the number of vulnerable populations that reach the U.S.-Mexico border.

Yes, he isn't expelling kids under the Title 42 order, but neither did Trump in 2019 or Obama in 2014.

Let's hope that once the dust settles on this crisis, the Biden administration CAN distinguish itself from its predecessors by seeking out more permanent solutions than outsourcing our border control to Mexico.