biden's first 100 days:

progress report on president biden's impact on South Texas

intro

In this report card, we detail what South Texas residents are fighting for. President Joe Biden's success or failure on these issues in his first 100 days will color our relationship with him for the remainder of his term. 

South Texas has been used as a political football for too long. We have a 30-foot-tall symbol running along the Southern border. We don’t need any more symbolic action. We need tangible results. We’re not grading him on his promises but rather on our needs.

President Biden made some promising moves, but his follow-through is going to need to get a lot better if he’s going to earn our trust and show he’s different than past Presidents who have used South Texas to score political points and left our people struggling.

HOW WE GRADED

Below are the meaning of each grade:


Pass


President Biden fixed Trump's mess and listened to the direction of community advocates


"Meh"


President Biden has fixed some of Trump's mess but needs significant improvement


FAIL


President Biden has continued Trump's policies, worsened conditions, and/or has not listened to the direction of community advocates

border militarization

Stopping Trump's border wall construction


FAIL

In August 2020 President Biden, then candidate, told NPR’s Lulu Navarro that "There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration, No. 1," and with regards to land condemnations and lawsuits President Biden said "End. Stop. Done. Over. Not going to do it. Withdraw the lawsuits. We're out. We're not going to confiscate the land."

Unfortunately, on April 12th the U.S. government seized land owned by the Cavazos family of Mission,Texas, and has in total 140 land seizure cases across the State of Texas that are still moving through the courts. Further, the President’s Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has stated an interest in closing in “gaps” left by the Trump administration.

Despite repeated calls from activists across the border for transparency and open communication, the administration has given no indication on whether it will continue to trample over families in the courts and proceed with the disastrous and racist border wall. In short, Biden is failing on the border wall. 

UPDATE ON BIDEN STOPPING TRUMP'S BORDER WALL:


A few hours after we published this report card, the Biden administration announced it is canceling all border wall military-funded contracts. Although we are excited that contracts for walls funded by money stolen from other agencies will be canceled, we remain disappointed that walls in the RGV may still continue to be built, as funds for these walls came from the Congressional appropriations process. 

Biden is proving he can indeed cancel contracts, and it remains to be seen whether he will follow through and provide RGV families the same relief he is providing other border communities. Therefore, his failing grade on this issue remains.

Stopping deadly so-called "smart walls"


FAIL

President Biden is championing border enforcement infrastructure and surveillance technology, commonly known as virtual or “smart” walls. In the President’s topline request for FY 2022 discretionary funding, for example, he includes $1.2 billion to DHS for border infrastructure, including “investments in modern border security technology and assets." Additionally, Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 authorizes DHS to deploy harmful, invasive technology with no cap on spending and nominal oversight.  

For RGV communities, this means more drones, aerial surveillance blimps, sensors, militarized neighborhoods and green spaces, increased law enforcement presence, and unceasing and indefinite attacks on our right to privacy and quality of life. 

Billions of dollars have been invested in a vast network of agents, detention facilities, surveillance technologies and other border enforcement infrastructure, with no appreciable impact on migration other than the government expelling, detaining, deporting and causing the death of thousands of people. For failing to break from the failed policies of Republican and Democratic presidents before him and instead doubling down on surveillance and militarization, Biden needs much improvement and receives a failing grade.

Cutting border patrol and ice budgets


FAIL

President Biden’s FY22 topline budget actually proposes an increase for the Department of Homeland Security’s compared to Trump’s FY21 budget. Though details of his proposal are pending, there is no indication that border patrol and ICE budgets will be slashed, a necessary step to reign in the corrupt agencies and protect immigrants.

As noted by the #DefundHate campaign, Biden’s budget “lacks any significant promises to decrease funding to ICE and CBP, two agencies that have operated with impunity to target and harm Black, brown and immigrant communities.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Appointee, Alejandro Mayorkas


"Meh"/FAIL

While the appointment of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was celebrated to his former leadership at USCIS, Secretary Mayorkas failed to meet with stakeholders and community leaders during a critical visit to the Rio Grande Valley on April 8. At a time when the RGV is an epicenter of failed immigration and border militarization policies, Mayorkas’ decision to meet with mostly local DHS agents is not much different from how the Trump administration approached the issue.

Secretary Mayorkas has been sluggish at best at providing transparency around the detention facilities caging child migrants in reprehensible conditions in the Rio Grande Valley. While the administration has taken steps to release regular data on child migrants in government custody and given access to detention facilities to some press, local journalists and asylum advocates continue to be denied access to inspect the facilities.

immigration

Ending trump's "remain in mexico" program


"Meh"

Shortly after taking office President Biden showed promise for a more humane approach to the border via removing one of Trump’s most prominent anti-immigrant weapons, the “Remain in Mexico” policy. This policy forced over 60,000 people to await their immigration proceedings outside the United States, to face possible kidnapping, extortion, or worse.

Of course, there’s always a catch. The Biden administration did stop “enrolling” people into “Remain in Mexico,” and for many this was life-changing. On the ground, asylum-seeking families, especially those with clearly discernible disabilities, have been granted entry into the U.S. There have also been heartwarming stories featuring children being allowed to bring pets who they lived with them across the border. Unfortunately, these moments are few, relative to the abuses that continue.

Unfortunately, although the Biden Administration has paroled in some people sent to Mexico under MPP, the vast majority of people subject to MPP are still in Mexico, and there is no clear plan as to how or when more people might be able to pursue their asylum claim inside the US. In addition, continued practices such as the “Title 42” expulsions, and on the grounds accounts of immigrants at Ports of Entry being told to come back later, rather than be processed, has meant that the spirit of “Remain in Mexico” is in effect and therefore the danger it poses to hundreds of thousands is equally alive.

We do not give the President a failing grade here because there appears to not be a mass practice of forcing asylum seekers to await out the adjudication of their proceedings in Mexico, and therefore this program in name has been shut down. However, the administration’s deterrence efforts and the lack of planning for others subjected to MPP effectively leave the “Remain in Mexico’s” spirit alive and so we cannot pass the President. 

Ending trump's "title 42" expulsions


FAIL

Shortly after the coronavirus pandemic began to surge across the United States, the Trump administration took executive action to weaponize a health law and undertake mass extrajudicial expulsions of hundreds of thousands of immigrants apprehended along the Southern border. We call these “Title 42” expulsions, after the U.S. code. These expulsions upended decades of asylum laws, including protections for children, and serve white nationalist goals of blocking U.S. borders to marginalized peoples.

By CBP’s own numbers, over 420,000 individuals, including thousands of children, have been picked up by border patrol, held without due process without meaningful access to counsel, and forcibly put on a plane or dropped off a port of entry without having their day in court. Since President Biden took office he has continued the practice and over 200,000 immigrants have been expelled under his administration.

The results of expulsions are deadly and traumatizing, with families being sent to harm’s way and many children forced to cross the border unaccompanied without parents. President Biden has very clearly failed and must stop sending humans to harm's way. 

ending immigration detention


FAIL

As the spread of COVID-19 persists in detention facilities and surrounding communities, President Biden is still detaining 15,830 people in long-term ICE facilities, and shorter-term CBP facilities remain the primary mechanism for processing newcomers. ICE under Biden continues to imprison people in unhygienic, crowded, and medically negligent facilities; is transferring individuals - and COVID-19 - haphazardly across detention centers; and has yet to vaccinate people in their custody. 

As was the case under President Trump, immigration detention is optional. President Biden is choosing not to exercise his authority to provide relief to thousands of families who know their loved ones can better navigate their civil immigration case from the safety of their own home, not behind bars.

Instead of closing facilities that imprison families with children, moreover, Biden and his administration have deceivingly tried to re-brand two of them as “reception centers.” And though Biden issued an executive order phasing out contracts with private prison companies, it was limited to the Department of Justice and did not include ICE facilities

For failing to end immigration detention and stop the harm that ICE and CBP continue to inflict on people in their custody, President Biden receives a failing grade.

ending immigrant family separations


FAIL

President Biden made a splash with his February 2nd executive order announcing the establishment of an interagency task force to reunite children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border during the Trump administration’s tenure, but was it enough? As of today, children are still separated from trusted relatives and continue to fill makeshift warehouses, extending the US legacy for #KidsInCages.

Despite the Biden administration’s big talk on caring about what happens to these migrant children, the administration has further reinforced family separation by proxy, structuring a ‘Sophie’s Choice’ scenario for refugee families expelled by continued Trump era Title 42 provisions that prevent families from coming into the country safe and together. The rule has forced parents to separate from their children after being stranded in the most dangerous areas of Mexico and has been the most talked about immigration topic that both conservative and moderate leaders have seized on to rationalize more funding for detention and border militarization. 

increasing refugee resettlement numbers


"Meh"

President Biden campaigned on increasing refugee numbers, but flinched as president when acute criticism from both moderates and conservatives alike argued that the number of unauthorized crossings at the border called for the cap to remain at the lowest it’s ever been, 15,000.  After a strong reaction from Human Rights organizations, the Biden administration relented to a commitment for expanded numbers.

Nevertheless, the federal government isn’t obligated to hit any cap set; the bigger confusion is that those who seek asylum and those who are qualifiable refugees come from different categories; lumped together as the same. Border Lines said it best, “the refugee and asylum programs are often conflated and have identical general criteria, [but] they are actually separate programs that operate with their own distinct staffs and government infrastructure. The key distinction is that the refugee program is designed to process people abroad,” while there is no cap for those who would seek asylum once on US territory.

Stopping deportations and interior immigration enforcement


FAIL

Though Biden’s administration issued a 100-day moratorium on deportations, it was blocked by a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Since, Biden has failed to use tools not blocked by the court, like cancelling individual deportations, stopping expulsions at the border, and ceasing to pursue people for deportation.

United We Dream estimates he has now deported over 302,000 people. Similarly, while DHS leadership issued guidelines on Biden’s first day in office to limit enforcement and removal priorities, a February 18 memo from ICE leadership provided updated guidelines broadening those priorities and “putting many more people at risk of detention and deportation.” These expanded guidelines use contact with the racist criminal justice system to further criminalize Black and people of color communities under the guise and false narratives of maintaining public safety and national security. 

For failing to fulfill promises and continuing to rely on racist and punitive frameworks, President Biden receives a failing grade.

Providing an accessible pathway to citizenship


"Meh"

Biden’s signature U.S. Citizenship Act and his support for the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act are an exciting opportunity to win much needed and long awaited relief for millions of immigrants.

But these bills use past contact with the racist criminal legal system to exclude many Black and Latinx people from legalization a path to Citizenship.

These so-called "criminal" bars would make people who have been convicted of either two or three misdemeanors ineligible for legal status. The Dream and Promise Act goes further, adding a second layer of criminalization that will exclude Black and brown immigrants who have been accused of gang involvement.

On top of that, President Biden’s failure to reform the filibuster means these legalization bills have close to zero chances of passing the US Senate. Without action to reform the filibuster, the president’s support for legalization and a roadmap to citizenship is little more than virtue signaling.

Conclusion

The reality is residents of border communities are still over-policed, over-surveilled and forced to play host to the ongoing violation of the basic human rights of families arriving here in search of a better life. If President Biden wants to turn the page on the adversarial relationship between border communities and the federal government that he experienced as part of the Obama Administration, we need to see an end to the militarization of our region and the criminalization of migration.

Border communities are ready for change and to hold all elected officials to account, like we always have. We urge the Biden administration to uphold our values and do its part so that all families and individuals living in the border thrive and live without fear.

intro

In this report card, we detail what South Texas residents are fighting for. President Joe Biden's success or failure on these issues in his first 100 days will color our relationship with him for the remainder of his term. 

South Texas has been used as a political football for too long. We have a 30-foot-tall symbol running along the Southern border. We don’t need any more symbolic action. We need tangible results. We’re not grading him on his promises but rather on our needs.

President Biden made some promising moves, but his follow-through is going to need to get a lot better if he’s going to earn our trust and show he’s different than past Presidents who have used South Texas to score political points and left our people struggling.

HOW WE GRADED

Below are the meaning of each grade:


Pass


President Biden fixed Trump's mess and listened to the direction of community advocates


"Meh"


President Biden has fixed some of Trump's mess but needs signifiant improvement


FAIL


President Biden has continued Trump's policies, worsened conditions, and/or has not listened to the direction of community advocates

border militarization

Stopping Trump's border wall construction


FAIL


In August 2020 President Biden, then candidate, told NPR’s Lulu Navarro that "There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration, No. 1," and with regards to land condemnations and lawsuits President Biden said "End. Stop. Done. Over. Not going to do it. Withdraw the lawsuits. We're out. We're not going to confiscate the land."

Unfortunately, on April 12th the U.S. government seized land owned by the Cavazos family of Mission,Texas, and has in total 140 land seizure cases across the State of Texas that are still moving through the courts. Further, the President’s Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has stated an interest in closing in “gaps” left by the Trump administration.

Despite repeated calls from activists across the border for transparency and open communication, the administration has given no indication on whether it will continue to trample over families in the courts and proceed with the disastrous and racist border wall. In short, Biden is failing on the border wall. 

UPDATE ON BIDEN STOPPING TRUMP'S BORDER WALL:


A few hours after we published this report card, the Biden administration announced it is canceling all border wall military-funded contracts. Although we are excited that contracts for walls funded by money stolen from other agencies will be canceled, we remain disappointed that walls in the RGV may still continue to be built, as funds for these walls came from the Congressional appropriations process. 

Biden is proving he can indeed cancel contracts, and it remains to be seen whether he will follow through and provide RGV families the same relief he is providing other border communities. Therefore, his failing grade on this issue remains.

Stopping deadly so-called "smart walls"


FAIL


President Biden is championing border enforcement infrastructure and surveillance technology, commonly known as virtual or “smart” walls. In the President’s topline request for FY 2022 discretionary funding, for example, he includes $1.2 billion to DHS for border infrastructure, including “investments in modern border security technology and assets." Additionally, Biden’s U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 authorizes DHS to deploy harmful, invasive technology with no cap on spending and nominal oversight.  

For RGV communities, this means more drones, aerial surveillance blimps, sensors, militarized neighborhoods and green spaces, increased law enforcement presence, and unceasing and indefinite attacks on our right to privacy and quality of life. 

Billions of dollars have been invested in a vast network of agents, detention facilities, surveillance technologies and other border enforcement infrastructure, with no appreciable impact on migration other than the government expelling, detaining, deporting and causing the death of thousands of people. For failing to break from the failed policies of Republican and Democratic presidents before him and instead doubling down on surveillance and militarization, Biden needs much improvement and receives a failing grade.

Cutting border patrol and ice budgets


FAIL


President Biden’s FY22 topline budget actually proposes an increase for the Department of Homeland Security’s compared to Trump’s FY21 budget. Though details of his proposal are pending, there is no indication that border patrol and ICE budgets will be slashed, a necessary step to reign in the corrupt agencies and protect immigrants.

As noted by the #DefundHate campaign, Biden’s budget “lacks any significant promises to decrease funding to ICE and CBP, two agencies that have operated with impunity to target and harm Black, brown and immigrant communities.”

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Appointee, Alejandro Mayorkas


"Meh"/FAIL


While the appointment of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was celebrated to his former leadership at USCIS, Secretary Mayorkas failed to meet with stakeholders and community leaders during a critical visit to the Rio Grande Valley on April 8. At a time when the RGV is an epicenter of failed immigration and border militarization policies, Mayorkas’ decision to meet with mostly local DHS agents is not much different from how the Trump administration approached the issue.

Secretary Mayorkas has been sluggish at best at providing transparency around the detention facilities caging child migrants in reprehensible conditions in the Rio Grande Valley. While the administration has taken steps to release regular data on child migrants in government custody and given access to detention facilities to some press, local journalists and asylum advocates continue to be denied access to inspect the facilities.

immigration

ending trump's "remain in mexico" program


"Meh"


Shortly after taking office President Biden showed promise for a more humane approach to the border via removing one of Trump’s most prominent anti-immigrant weapons, the “Remain in Mexico” policy. This policy forced over 60,000 people to await their immigration proceedings outside the United States, to face possible kidnapping, extortion, or worse.

Of course, there’s always a catch. The Biden administration did stop “enrolling” people into “Remain in Mexico,” and for many this was life-changing. On the ground, asylum-seeking families, especially those with clearly discernible disabilities, have been granted entry into the U.S. There have also been heartwarming stories featuring children being allowed to bring pets who they lived with them across the border. Unfortunately, these moments are few, relative to the abuses that continue.

Unfortunately, although the Biden Administration has paroled in some people sent to Mexico under MPP, the vast majority of people subject to MPP are still in Mexico, and there is no clear plan as to how or when more people might be able to pursue their asylum claim inside the US. In addition, continued practices such as the “Title 42” expulsions, and on the grounds accounts of immigrants at Ports of Entry being told to come back later, rather than be processed, has meant that the spirit of “Remain in Mexico” is in effect and therefore the danger it poses to hundreds of thousands is equally alive. We do not give the President a failing grade here because there appears to not be a mass practice of forcing asylum seekers to await out the adjudication of their proceedings in Mexico, and therefore this program in name has been shut down. However, the administration’s deterrence efforts and the lack of planning for others subjected to MPP effectively leave the “Remain in Mexico’s” spirit alive and so we cannot pass the President. 

ending trump's "title 42" expulsions


FAIL


Shortly after the coronavirus pandemic began to surge across the United States, the Trump administration took executive action to weaponize a health law and undertake mass extrajudicial expulsions of hundreds of thousands of immigrants apprehended along the Southern border. We call these “Title 42” expulsions, after the U.S. code. These expulsions upended decades of asylum laws, including protections for children, and serve white nationalist goals of blocking U.S. borders to marginalized peoples.

By CBP’s own numbers, over 420,000 individuals, including thousands of children, have been picked up by border patrol, held without due process without meaningful access to counsel, and forcibly put on a plane or dropped off a port of entry without having their day in court. Since President Biden took office he has continued the practice and over 200,000 immigrants have been expelled under his administration.

The results of expulsions are deadly and traumatizing, with families being sent to harm’s way and many children forced to cross the border unaccompanied without parents. President Biden has very clearly failed and must stop sending humans to harm's way. 

ending immigration detention


FAIL


As the spread of COVID-19 persists in detention facilities and surrounding communities, President Biden is still detaining 15,830 people in long-term ICE facilities, and shorter-term CBP facilities remain the primary mechanism for processing newcomers. ICE under Biden continues to imprison people in unhygienic, crowded, and medically negligent facilities; is transferring individuals - and COVID-19 - haphazardly across detention centers; and has yet to vaccinate people in their custody. 

As was the case under President Trump, immigration detention is optional. President Biden is choosing not to exercise his authority to provide relief to thousands of families who know their loved ones can better navigate their civil immigration case from the safety of their own home, not behind bars.

Instead of closing facilities that imprison families with children, moreover, Biden and his administration have deceivingly tried to re-brand two of them as “reception centers.” And though Biden issued an executive order phasing out contracts with private prison companies, it was limited to the Department of Justice and did not include ICE facilities

For failing to end immigration detention and stop the harm that ICE and CBP continue to inflict on people in their custody, President Biden receives a failing grade.

ending immigrant family separations


FAIL


President Biden made a splash with his February 2nd executive order announcing the establishment of an interagency task force to reunite children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border during the Trump administration’s tenure, but was it enough? As of today, children are still separated from trusted relatives and continue to fill makeshift warehouses, extending the US legacy for #KidsInCages.

Despite the Biden administration’s big talk on caring about what happens to these migrant children, the administration has further reinforced family separation by proxy, structuring a ‘Sophie’s Choice’ scenario for refugee families expelled by continued Trump era Title 42 provisions that prevent families from coming into the country safe and together. The rule has forced parents to separate from their children after being stranded in the most dangerous areas of Mexico and has been the most talked about immigration topic that both conservative and moderate leaders have seized on to rationalize more funding for detention and border militarization. 

increasing refugee resettlement numbers


FAIL


President Biden campaigned on increasing refugee numbers, but flinched as president when acute criticism from both moderates and conservatives alike argued that the number of unauthorized crossings at the border called for the cap to remain at the lowest it’s ever been, 15,000.  After a strong reaction from Human Rights organizations, the Biden administration relented to a commitment for expanded numbers.

Nevertheless, the federal government isn’t obligated to hit any cap set; the bigger confusion is that those who seek asylum and those who are qualifiable refugees come from different categories; lumped together as the same. Border Lines said it best, “the refugee and asylum programs are often conflated and have identical general criteria, [but] they are actually separate programs that operate with their own distinct staffs and government infrastructure. The key distinction is that the refugee program is designed to process people abroad,” while there is no cap for those who would seek asylum once on US territory.

Stopping deportations and interior immigration enforcement


FAIL


Though Biden’s administration issued a 100-day moratorium on deportations, it was blocked by a lawsuit from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Since, Biden has failed to use tools not blocked by the court, like cancelling individual deportations, stopping expulsions at the border, and ceasing to pursue people for deportation.

United We Dream estimates he has now deported over 302,000 people. Similarly, while DHS leadership issued guidelines on Biden’s first day in office to limit enforcement and removal priorities, a February 18 memo from ICE leadership provided updated guidelines broadening those priorities and “putting many more people at risk of detention and deportation.” These expanded guidelines use contact with the racist criminal justice system to further criminalize Black and people of color communities under the guise and false narratives of maintaining public safety and national security. 

For failing to fulfill promises and continuing to rely on racist and punitive frameworks, President Biden receives a failing grade.

Providing an accessible pathway to citizenship


"Meh"


Biden’s signature U.S. Citizenship Act and his support for the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act are an exciting opportunity to win much needed and long awaited relief for millions of immigrants.

But these bills use past contact with the racist criminal legal system to exclude many Black and Latinx people from legalization a path to Citizenship.

These so-called "criminal" bars would make people who have been convicted of either two or three misdemeanors ineligible for legal status. The Dream and Promise Act goes further, adding a second layer of criminalization that will exclude Black and brown immigrants who have been accused of gang involvement.

On top of that, President Biden’s failure to reform the filibuster means these legalization bills have close to zero chances of passing the US Senate. Without action to reform the filibuster, the president’s support for legalization and a roadmap to citizenship is little more than virtue signaling.

Conclusion

The reality is residents of border communities are still over-policed, over-surveilled and forced to play host to the ongoing violation of the basic human rights of families arriving here in search of a better life. If President Biden wants to turn the page on the adversarial relationship between border communities and the federal government that he experienced as part of the Obama Administration, we need to see an end to the militarization of our region and the criminalization of migration.

Border communities are ready for change and to hold all elected officials to account, like we always have. We urge the Biden administration to uphold our values and do its part so that all families and individuals living in the border thrive and live without fear.