Some quick policy comments on the immigration section in #SOTU. Biden actually laid out a clear vision of what he's going to do with immigration, but you won't catch it if you focus on it from a domestic perspective because it's very much a regional engagement strategy with LatAm 
If you look at last year's speech before Congress, you can see that addressing root causes of migration was the major plank for regional engagement. While the administration has continued forward, tonight's speech showed a significant shift towards border externalization
In addition to noting the joint work with Guatemala and Mexico on human smuggling, the speech made it clear the admin is relying on other countries to control migration and receive asylum seekers, a strategy that stretches back at least to the Obama admin with the 2014 UAC crisis
In short, the speech called for creating interdiction states that support controlling migration to the U.S. And while it called for a pathway to citizenship and reforming the legal migration system - both needed - the other domestic sections reinforced this broader vision
Especially with calling for more judges to process asylum cases faster. Now I'm fine with faster adjudications and regional engagement to manage migration - I've written piece supporting both measures - but the question is whether this policy approach is sustainable over time
And that's a question all countries that rely on interdiction states and border externalization have to ask themselves, especially when dealing with the realty that migration to destination states can and will adjust over time, undermining any deterrent effect from these measures
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