In 2018 or 2019, I attended a local meeting of about 30 people, virtually all of whom were pro-Trump. What many of them liked most about Donald Trump’s policies was what I disliked most: his policies on immigration. Many of the pro-Trumpers argued that he was cracking down on illegal immigration. I agreed that he was but I also said, “Look at virtually every issue on which Donald Trump has been able to increase or decrease legal immigration and on almost every margin on which he could act, he acted to reduce immigration.”
Although I didn’t want Joe Biden to win the presidency because I feared, correctly as it turns out, that he would work hard to extend government control over our lives, both through government spending and regulation, I at least comforted myself with the idea that Biden would reverse some of the worst of Trump’s policies on legal immigration.
So I was disappointed when I thought Biden hadn’t.
But it turns out he has.
The person who has documented this well is David J. Bier, associate director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. In “What Biden Has Gotten Right on Immigration,” Cato at Liberty, November 29, 2022, Bier lists a full 20 measures the Biden administration has taken to liberalize immigration. I won’t list them all here because you can easily check for yourself. I will highlight a few.
Here’s a big one:
Rescinding the labor protectionist immigrant visa ban
On February 25, 2021, President Biden fully rescinded President Trump’s worldwide ban on permanent immigration by almost everyone other than spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens. The ban was based on the fear that they would compete for jobs with U.S. citizens.
Here’s another:
Allowing the labor protectionist nonimmigrant visa ban to expire
On April 1, 2021, President Biden allowed President’s Trump’s worldwide ban on most nonfarm temporary work visas to expire on the terms originally set by President Trump. The ban was based on the fear that these workers would compete for jobs with U.S. citizens.
Even the one of the 20 that I didn’t totally like is better than what it replaced. It’s this:
Ending the nonessential travel ban with Mexico and Canada
In November 2021, Biden replaced the Trump administration’s nonessential travel ban on noncitizen travelers through the land borders with Mexico and Canada with a vaccination requirement.
I don’t think Biden should have replaced the ban with anything. Why require vaccines? We know that vaccines don’t prevent transmission of the coronavirus. What happened to “following the science?” But still, replacing a ban with a regulation, one that most potential travelers are probably already complying with, is a move in the right direction.
One of the main things I liked about Trump’s policies was his deregulation of the domestic economy. But he heavily stepped up regulation of immigration, which, of course, affects the domestic economy. So by reversing some of Trump’s regulation, Biden should get a few points for deregulation.
READER COMMENTS
Stéphane Couvreur
Dec 3 2022 at 8:30am
It’s “What Biden has gotten right” of course 😉
David Henderson
Dec 3 2022 at 1:14pm
Oops. Thanks. Corrected.
Mark Barbieri
Dec 3 2022 at 11:38am
Good points. I would add that another big policy issue I had with Trump was his protectionism, which Biden doesn’t seem to have done anything to correct.
My pet peeve are the people that say that they aren’t anti-immigration, just anti-illegal immigration. Whenever I suggest that we could fix that problem by allowing a lot more legal immigration, they never seem to agree. I suspect that it is because they are anti-poor Hispanic people immigrating regardless of their legal status but it makes them feel better about themselves to believe that they only oppose people immigrating illegally.
Dylan
Dec 3 2022 at 2:40pm
Agreed. I find the response I hear the most is that “we have to secure our borders first” but with no explanation on what that means, how much they’re willing to spend on it, or the fact that one great way to reduce the demand for illegal immigration is to increase the availability of the legal kind.
john hare
Dec 3 2022 at 5:37pm
Given that my wife and all three employees are immigrant, I think it fair to say I like immigrants. The anti-illegals also annoy me no end. There is very little legal route in for people with limited education and no contacts. My wife and two of the employees started as illegals and spent considerable sums on lawyers legalizing their status. The two employees dropped out of the third and fifth grades, are in their forties, and pay taxes on income well above the county average. A large part of the problem in my view is the lucrative business for lawyers “adjusting” their status.
Komori
Dec 4 2022 at 12:28pm
My view is pretty simple. I’d be in favor of increasing legal immigration, but this issue has been around a long time. Until I actually see some willingness to enforce current immigration law I have absolutely no reason to trust any deal on the subject. Looking at the recent history, the most likely outcome would be massively increased legal and illegal immigration.
Thus, I have no reason to agree to prospect of increasing legal immigration until I see some signs the federal government plans to do anything to actually follow the laws and regulations they have already set themselves.
I do not expect that to happen.
I’ll add that the open corruption in several parts of the current visa process (I’m most familiar with H1-B and student visas and the games played around those by the tech industry) does nothing to contradict my stance.
Mactoul
Dec 3 2022 at 9:10pm
There is an opinion that it was precisely Trump’s rhetoric on immigration that led to his 2016 victory. And it was precisely his failure to deliver on the rhetoric, that is, his immigration non-accomplishments, that led to his 2020 defeat.
In other words, immigration restriction is popular among the people but highly unpopular among the elite. I believe Caplan also recognized this dynamics.
TMC
Dec 4 2022 at 10:30am
Re: Mark, Dylan, and john,
You can’t be looking very hard if you can’t find someone who can discuss illegal vs legal immigration. But then again, ‘securing the borders’ doesn’t need much of an explanation, does it? Either you do, or you do not. I’d like to enforce the borders to be much tighter, but boost both the number of legal immigrants and the process. When the Democrats tried to use the DACA kids for political purposes, Trump proposed doubling the number of those to be allowed permanent status. The issue went away very quickly. Biden has done nothing with it either.
Comments are closed.