Democrats’ Hard Right Turn on the Border

The party’s immigration agenda has shifted decisively to the right. “Yes, the numbers are up now. … I’m not going to act as though that is not reality,” said one House Democrat.

U.S.-Mexico border

The Democratic Party’s immigration agenda has undergone a radical transformation shifting decisively to the right. Gregory Bull/AP

Joe Biden is promising to shut down the border. Democratic candidates are condoning rhetoric liberals once deemed dangerously racist. And many of the party’s congressional lawmakers have been supportive of a border security deal considered a total capitulation to the GOP (that the GOP has since rejected as being too soft).

In the span of only a few weeks, the Democratic Party’s immigration agenda has undergone a radical transformation, shifting decisively to the right amid fraught legislative negotiations and campaigns where the issue has emerged as a political liability.

“There’s no question what they were saying when Trump was in office and after Biden got elected was much more pro-immigration, and now it’s just completely 180,” said Silky Shah, executive director of Detention Watch Network, a liberal advocacy group.

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