For most of the decades the Democratic Party had a fairly clear stance on immigration. It advocated a mix of enforcement (like border security and deportation of undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes) and new laws for immigrants (like an increase in legal immigration and a path to citizenship for undocumented people).

In recent years, however, immigration advocates and progressive Democrats have grown dissatisfied with this combination. You have pointed out that Democratic support for tighter border security has not resulted in the bipartisan compromise it should have: Republicans continue to block bills that provide a route to citizenship.

In response, these progressives and activists have pushed the party to change. Bill Clinton ran for re-election on a platform that said, “We cannot tolerate illegal immigration and we must stop it.” Barack Obama once said: “We simply cannot allow people to flood into the United States undetected, without papers and without controls.” Instead, President Biden has emphasized the humane treatment of immigrants regardless of their legal status.

After taking office, Biden began to put this idea into practice. He announced a 100-day suspension of deportations (which a judge has blocked). He allowed more migrants – especially children – to enter the country instead of being detained. And Central American migrants, feeling the US has become more welcoming, are pouring north in the greatest numbers in two decades.

The upswing seems to have surprised the von Biden government, as Doris Meissner from the Institute for Migration Policy, which headed the immigration and naturalization service in the 1990s, told me. The Republicans have overthrown and accused the Democrats of preferring an “open border”.

Some Democrats are also unhappy. Biden’s policy “is an incentive for multitudes of people to come, and the only way to slow it down is to change the policy on our doorstep,” Texas representative Vicente Gonzalez told the Washington Post. Henry Cuellar, another Texas House Democrat, said the government was sending “terrible news.”

All of this is based on the fact that the Democratic Party no longer has a clear immigration policy.

While Donald Trump was president, he smoothed out internal tensions among the Democrats because they could unite against him. Trump used racist language; Democrats hated it. Trump separated families and caged children; Democrats promised to end this policy. Trump said he would build a border wall that Mexico is paying for; Democrats mocked his failure.

However, with Trump out of office, the party faces some tough, unresolved questions, including:

Do Democrats Still Advocate Deporting Anyone? Some activists criticized Obama as a “top deporter”. However, he focused the deportations on only two groups: newcomers and immigrants who had committed serious crimes.

If Democrats prefer more lenient policies than Obama’s, it’s not clear whether they support the deportation of anyone – or whether they believe instead that the humane solution is to allow anyone who can legally or illegally enter the US , to stay. The party’s 2020 platform does not mention any conditions under which a deportation is acceptable. Biden’s attempt to stop the deportations for 100 days underscores the party’s new stance.

Which migrants should be turned away at the border? And what should happen to them next?

There are no easy answers. One option is to prevent people from entering the country (as is currently the case with many adults traveling alone) – but this can lead to miserable conditions on the Mexican side of the border. A second option is to arrest people in the US while their legal cases are being investigated. Child detention is difficult, however, and many Democrats consider immigrant detention to be similar to Trumpism.

A third option is to take in migrants and order them to appear at a future court hearing (as is the case with many children and families). The adults often have to wear anklets. Still, the process can take years and raise other sensitive questions. Many migrants are not good asylum seekers; They come to find work or to be around relatives, which does not necessarily qualify them for legal entry.

Often it is left to the administration to decide who is ready for deportation.

There are possible political solutions to all of these questions. The US could increase legal immigration. It could build more detention facilities in humane conditions. It could do more to improve conditions in Latin America and get Mexico to control its own southern border. The Biden government follows many of these guidelines.

But if Biden and his aides seem less stable on immigration than many other policies, there is a reason: They are less stable.

Congress is unlikely to increase legal immigration many times over. Surveys show that while public opinion favors a route to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants, it also supports strict border security and the enforcement of existing immigration laws.

I’m not even sure if these views should be called conservative. In the past, many progressives supported immigration restrictions to keep wages high in the US. Today, working-class Americans – including many Asian-American, Black, and Latin American voters – tend to prefer more restrictions than progressive Democrats, who are often high-income professionals. This contrast could play a role in the recent Republican gains with minority voters.

“Unfortunately, the way the debate goes too often feels like, ‘Everyone should come and the border should be open,” said Cecilia Muñoz, a longtime immigrant attorney and former Obama adviser. “And that is what makes Americans fearful. “

One of the advantages of the old Democratic approach to immigration was that it was easy to describe: be firm on the border, be generous to people who have lived in the US for years. The new approach also has a lasting idea: be kinder to people who want to enter the country. But the Democrats still haven’t figured out the limits of this idea, which created an early problem for the Biden presidency.

How many immigrants should the US legally accept?

  • More: “There’s nothing wrong with open borders,” wrote Farhad Manjoo of the Times. Shikha Dalmia has argued that more immigration will fuel economic growth, and Matthew Yglesias wrote “One Billion Americans” in a book claiming that more immigration will help the US compete with China.

  • Fewer: “The ongoing argument for reducing immigration,” according to Philip Cafaro, revolves around higher wages. And David Frum of the Atlantic has suggested that less immigration will reduce the political appeal of nativism.

In flower: Spring has arrived in New York. Here come the cornflowers, butterfly milkweed, and black-eyed susans.

Lived life: Dr. Nawal el Saadawi was an Egyptian writer, doctor and advocate for women’s rights in the Arab world who told her own story about female genital mutilation in her memoirs. She died at the age of 89.

Model trains are the newest industry getting a pandemic boost from people looking for new hobbies. Märklin, a 162-year-old German company, is hiring new trainees as sales increase to learn the precise art of making miniature trains. (Take a virtual tour of the factory here.)

“It’s total chaos outside,” said one enthusiast. “But inside, around my little train set, it’s quiet, it’s picturesque.”

Spelling Bee’s pangram on Friday was unpopular. Here is today’s puzzle – or you can play online.

Here’s today’s mini crossword puzzle and a clue: palpitations (five letters).

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