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1:00

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm

1:02

Susan Davis. I cover politics. I'm Franco

1:04

Ordonez. I cover the White House. And

1:07

I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. And

1:09

President Biden is taking another new executive

1:11

action on immigration. Franco, what is

1:14

this intended to do? Well, President

1:16

Biden's offering to protect nearly

1:18

500,000 undocumented immigrants who are

1:20

married to U.S. citizens

1:23

from deportation. This effort would

1:25

also protect 50,000 people

1:28

who are under the age of 21 whose

1:30

parent is married to a U.S. citizen. They

1:33

will get work permits. They'll be able to

1:35

apply for green cards. All

1:37

of this will be without having

1:39

to leave the country. It also

1:42

puts them on an easier path

1:44

to citizenship. I mean, this

1:46

is a really big deal. I

1:48

mean, because it's actually very, very

1:50

difficult. You can't just get

1:52

married to an American and get a green card.

1:56

So trying to get married and get your status

1:58

changed can actually be a big deal. of

4:00

the 2024 election, but we also have new polling out

4:02

that puts a finer point on that. Yeah,

4:05

I mean, part of this is like Biden

4:07

just sort of reacting to public opinion, right?

4:09

He has to do something about what's happening

4:11

at the border, which he did, but there's

4:13

the other audience that he has

4:15

for this, which is the progressive base, right?

4:17

Like these are folks who are going to

4:20

be presumably knocking on doors for Democrats. And

4:22

so he has to like sort

4:24

of deal with both issues at once. And what

4:26

we know about immigration and sort of public opinion

4:28

is that especially during the primaries, a

4:31

lot of voters said this was their

4:33

top issue, especially Republican voters. Obviously this

4:35

was a big topic during

4:37

their primaries, but the sort of level

4:39

of importance that immigration is playing in

4:42

the election is starting to maybe wane

4:44

a little bit. So the latest NPR,

4:46

PBS news, mayor's poll out today shows

4:48

that slightly fewer voters say that immigration

4:50

is their top of mind issue. So

4:52

we can compare this to February, where

4:54

this was a top issue for 22%

4:57

of people surveyed. This month it's at

4:59

18%. You know, it's

5:01

not like the biggest change, but it does kind

5:03

of show that immigration is sort of trending back

5:05

to kind of like what you would expect it

5:07

to look like in terms of importance to voters

5:10

ahead of a general election. Let's just be

5:12

clear. I mean, there's a big reason why Biden

5:15

is doing this now. I mean, two weeks

5:17

ago, he issued an

5:19

executive action that essentially temporarily

5:21

shut down the border to

5:23

those trying to seek asylum

5:25

if they didn't cross a

5:28

port of entry. That really

5:30

angered a lot of progressives

5:32

and members of Biden's own

5:34

base. I mean, politics is

5:36

so much a factor in

5:38

what we're seeing here today.

5:40

Ashley's talking about the polls. I

5:42

mean, Biden's trying to balance, you know,

5:44

these Americans who want a stronger border,

5:46

a stronger policy, as well as, you

5:48

know, his base that is, you know,

5:50

wanting Biden to kind of fulfill his

5:52

promises of a more humane immigration

5:55

system. He's trying to be everything to everyone

5:57

on immigration, it seems like we were just in

5:59

the studio. a couple of weeks ago talking

6:01

about how Biden was trying to take this tougher

6:03

stance on immigration. And this is a much more

6:06

empathetic, humane framing

6:08

of the immigration debate and who needs to be helped

6:10

and why. Yeah. And I mean, a lot of this

6:12

has to do also with the fact that Biden

6:15

is not performing very well with non-white voters,

6:17

especially Latinos. And it is a mixed bag

6:19

when it comes to immigration in terms of

6:21

like what Latinos say they need from immigration

6:24

reform. There are, of course, Latinos who want,

6:26

you know, especially those who live on the

6:28

border who border reform, but things like

6:30

this, like people who live in mixed status

6:33

families think about these issues all the time.

6:35

And, you know, community groups talk to

6:37

families who, you know, care about immigration. Some

6:40

of the conversations they have are, well, what

6:42

is the president going to do about the

6:44

fact that I'm worried that part of

6:46

my family could be deported at any time?

6:49

So these are conversations that happen a lot.

6:51

Maybe aren't the swinging issue that will get

6:53

Biden independent voters, but definitely that core

6:55

coalition of voters that helped elect Joe Biden

6:57

in 2020 includes people from mixed status families.

7:00

Sure. And in that regard, this is like a kitchen

7:02

table issue for families like this. Yeah. All

7:05

right. Let's take a quick break and we'll talk more about this when

7:07

we get back. This

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8:22

Right, publishers of white poverty,

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8:40

And we're back. And Franco, I'm curious

8:42

what kind of reaction this announcement is

8:44

getting from within the Democratic Party,

8:47

especially as you compare it to the other executive

8:49

action that Biden took recently on immigration that was

8:51

the cause for a lot of criticism from within

8:53

his own party. I mean, I

8:55

think that, you know, certainly from his

8:57

party, people are happy. They are pleased

8:59

that Biden is, you know, providing a

9:02

more humane system. I mean, it's kind

9:04

of like we've been talking about Biden's

9:06

really been struggling to kind of balance

9:08

both sides because there's such a

9:11

demand from many Americans to kind

9:13

of get control of the border

9:16

amid really record number of migrants

9:18

caught illegally. It's been kind of

9:20

amazing seeing how Biden has struggled

9:23

with this issue, perhaps

9:25

more than many previous administrations.

9:27

I mean, you've had actual

9:29

Democratic mayors and Democratic governors

9:32

calling on Biden to do more,

9:34

criticizing Biden for not

9:36

doing enough. Polls show that most

9:38

Americans trust Republicans more than Biden

9:40

on immigration. But when I talk

9:42

to some experts like Aaron Reikland

9:44

Melnick, who is the policy director

9:46

of the American Immigration Council, he

9:49

says there's actually a lot of

9:51

misunderstanding about what is actually happening

9:53

at the border and how and

9:55

when it started. I mean, many people

9:57

simply don't know that by the time

9:59

President. because

12:00

of the political potential impacts that

12:02

Ashley's talking about, not wanting to

12:05

give Biden a win. And today,

12:07

you know, they're continuing to criticize

12:10

Biden. They're calling today's action amnesty.

12:12

They're saying it's politics, not policy, that

12:15

he could have done this before. In

12:17

the first place, he should never have

12:20

unraveled Trump's policies from his administration. I

12:22

mean, there does seem to be a point there

12:24

because I don't know what exactly what will happen

12:26

with this action, but it does seem almost certain

12:28

to be contested in the courts if it goes that

12:30

far. And the Supreme Court has

12:32

been skeptical about executive authority as being as

12:34

sweeping as this in immigration. They certainly batted

12:36

back down the Obama administration when they tried

12:38

to do it on their own. So, you

12:41

know, this might just be more of a

12:43

political exercise than a sweeping policy change at

12:45

the end of the day. Absolutely.

12:47

I mean, that's kind of what immigration

12:49

policy has been. It has been a

12:51

bunch of political exercises, as

12:53

you point out. You know, Obama did

12:56

some executive actions with Republicans turned

12:58

back, and then Biden turned back several

13:00

of the executive actions that Trump did.

13:02

I mean, I think that just speaks

13:05

to the problems with Washington right

13:07

now and Congress

13:09

unable to, you know,

13:11

find an agreement or

13:13

find a way forward. And it's

13:15

a really, really difficult issue. I've been

13:17

covering it actually for a while. And I

13:20

think, you know, maybe it's right up

13:22

there and kind of like the emotional impact

13:25

hard as abortion, guns. I mean,

13:27

this is, this is a really

13:29

heart wrenching issue that Washington just

13:31

can't get a handle on. All

13:34

right. Let's leave it there for today. I'm Susan

13:36

Davis. I cover politics. I'm Frank Ordonez. I

13:38

cover the White House. And I'm Ashley

13:40

Lopez. I cover politics. And thanks for listening

13:42

to the NPR Politics podcast. This

13:52

message comes from NPR sponsor Doctors

13:54

Without Borders. Just three years ago,

13:57

the number of forcibly displaced people

13:59

are