U.S. News
NY Times Director Criticizes Biden Immigration Approach
Clear Facts
- David Leonhardt, editorial director for The New York Times opinion section, stated that most Americans did not support former President Joe Biden’s immigration policy.
- Leonhardt highlighted that the United States experienced the highest rate of migrant arrivals in its history during Biden’s term from 2021 to 2023, with annual net migration averaging 2.4 million.
- Leonhardt emphasized that approximately eight million net migrants entered the country under Biden, about five million of whom arrived illegally.
David Leonhardt made clear in a recent interview that former President Biden’s immigration agenda did not match the wishes of most American voters. The Times’ editorial director directly cited these policies as a main reason for the Democratic Party’s 2024 loss to President Trump.
“It was unpopular from the beginning. And it happened in large part—not exclusively, but in large part—because of the policies they enacted,” Leonhardt said.
He reported that from 2021 through 2023, the nation saw record-breaking numbers of migrants arriving, surpassing even the Ellis Island era’s highest points.
Leonhardt wrote, “Annual net migration — the number of people coming to the country minus the number leaving — averaged 2.4 million people from 2021 to 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Total net migration during the Biden administration is likely to exceed eight million people,” noting that about 60% of arrivals occurred illegally.
He directly named this immigration record as one of three leading factors behind Kamala Harris’s election defeat, alongside Biden’s age and persistent inflation.
“And under President Biden, we had the largest surge of immigration over a short period in American history. The pace was even faster than the peak pace of the Ellis Island years of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century,” Leonhardt explained.
He detailed the situation further: “We had eight million net immigrants come into the country. It appears that about five million of them entered illegally, a vastly faster pace than under Trump or Obama.”
Leonhardt acknowledged that Biden signaled support for higher migration on the 2020 campaign trail and eased border policies immediately upon taking office.
“Almost immediately, immigration surged,” he said, adding, “it was never what most American voters wanted. It particularly was not what lower-income voters across races wanted.”
He compared this to President Obama’s approach, recognizing that border security and the removal of criminals were actively supported under the previous Democratic administration.
“Under Obama, in 2012, it’s this really balanced approach. It brags about having the border be more secure than at any point in the previous decades. It talks about deporting criminals who endanger our communities. It also, of course, talks about this being a nation of immigrants and needing to provide a citizenship pathway for undocumented people who follow the law. And it celebrates Dreamers and all of that stuff.”
Leonhardt noted that by 2020, the Democratic Party platform no longer prioritized border security in its language.
He argued, “there is ‘no evidence’ in any polling ever that Americans supported doing away with border security.”
Leonhardt said that President Biden was guided by the wishes of progressive and affluent factions, though moderation, in his view, is much more popular with most voters.
He ultimately called for a more balanced approach: “the party’s immigration message should become ‘one that is more moderate than what the Party’s has been and one that acknowledges the complications that immigration has huge benefits both for immigrants and for the country but it also has meaningful downsides.'”
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