One angle that merits attention is the way this MPP litigation exasperated existing conflicts between the admin and advocates - and within the admin itself - over the state of the US’ border policies. The litigation clearly aimed to hit the admin on its response to the border
But something I wonder is the extent to which this litigation also aimed to push the admin in a direction where it either lost support from advocacy groups or face a situation where it’s held in contempt of the court if it didn’t sufficiently revive MPP for an antagonistic court
To be clear, I think the admin is likely banking on Mexico to bail it out by rejecting the implementation of MPP - something the Fifth Circuit allowed Mexico to do - instead of making public moves to create its own off ramp. And keeping Title 42 continues to be a major strike
But it speaks to the fraught state of immigration policy and politics that a lawsuit can make it worse, even among allies. I knew hardliners would use lawsuits to derail the admin’s policies, but it’s clear they’re interested in creating far more lasting political damage too

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More from @CramonMigration

18 Oct
One challenge demanding the admin to end Title 42 is that when it comes to immigration, the "Biden administration" is composed of multiple individuals and teams with diverging views on its immigration goals, stakeholders they prioritize, and the level of power they wield here
After the Trump years where Miller dominated this policy portfolio, this approach is more like the ones we saw in the Obama and Bush years. As a result, there is no "singular voice" among immigration staffers who can make a unilateral decision in response to pressure campaigns
Instead, you're dealing with multiple actors who may or may not have the power - or, frankly, the interest - in ending Title 42 and MPP. And that's something the White House's allies did not prepare for, especially after the initial hiring and policy announcements in January
Read 4 tweets
18 Mar
This is why the border and regional migration plans pro-immigration center/center-right groups have released merit attention. They show this political space can produce smart and humane proposals that counter the deterrence-only approach Sargent rightfully lambasts in this piece
Here are a few that are worth reading. I just worked on this @TheBushCenter white paper on smart border policy earlier this year that not only proposes a regional migration management plan, but metrics for assessing its success bushcenter.org/publications/r…
And I also worked on this @BPC_Bipartisan proposal that offered a regional migration management approach that also called for the U.S. government to have the ability to rapidly allocate sources to the border to serve vulnerable populations bipartisanpolicy.org/report/policy-…
Read 7 tweets
16 Mar
So I will comment on one part of Frum’s piece and then link to a few threads of critiques of Zakaria’s that are relevant. Frum contends that the US needs a messaging strategy to deter future arrivals. But as @BPC_TBrown taught me, messaging doesn’t work as a deterrence
What works is developing ways to speed up adjudications with due process protections so the migrant will know whether they can receive asylum or not, a message they send back to their home countries. But that directly cuts against Frum’s opposition to asylum access at the border
And taking that step means developing a meaningful regional migration management plan with regional processing that has these adjudication capacities. It also means creating a modern border infrastructure and immigration court system for adjudications bushcenter.org/publications/r…
Read 7 tweets
16 Mar
One thing that I wonder when reading statements about regional processing of migrants is whether the admin would redo the ACAs but resettle some migrants in legitimately safe third countries like Canada or Costa Rica during larger migration events where it would need help
But my wariness about the ACAs remains the same, namely they could be tools for rapid removals of migrants. And the EU-Turkey deal shows relying on other countries to resettle migrants or stop migrant flows is rarely a long-term solution to these issues bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/the-excep…
If the admin caps the number of migrants resettled through these agreements, that could partially address these concerns. But they'd need mechanisms to prevent future admins from changing the caps to make them the principle regional resettlement tools, reinforcing my wariness
Read 4 tweets
15 Mar
I've lambasted defenses of MPP like Zakaria's piece from a migration governance view since other colleagues have addressed their human rights problems. But there is one more line of criticism of these pieces to explore, which is the way MPP and the ACAs operated as black boxes
The Trump admin did not release any data during a large stretch of the program's operations. My December 2019 blog post that gathered all the publicly available data at the time found that only @TRACReports - not CBP - systematically gathered this data bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/the-end-o…
And when DHS finally started publishing monthly MPP data, it only published data from January 2020 onward, a full year after it had been in operation and sent a significant number of migrants to Mexico. Simply put, the program operated as a black box cbp.gov/newsroom/stats…
Read 7 tweets
15 Mar
The "Biden immigration agenda is too liberal/is under threat because of the border" story is starting to retread old ground. A more interesting angle is this: does the political investment in agriculture shield the Farm Workforce Modernization Act from other immigration issues?
One thing that struck me about the law's prior passage in the House was the way Members' commitments to the agricultural sector, which cover a large number of House districts, increased bipartisan buy-in into the law. Support from growers, UFW, and advocates helped get it passed
But the fusion of broad based economic interests in supporting the workforce of different elements of an economic sector is something that set the bill apart from other standalone immigration bills we've seen in recent, with the Fairness for High Skilled being one exception
Read 7 tweets

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