Border officials tracked 2.3 million people crossing the southwest border in 2022 just as millions of migrants have before them, compelled by economic hardship, rising violence and oppression in their homelands.
The Biden administration responded with an unpopular plan to manage this historic influx, promoting a pandemic-era policy that leans heavily on the speedy removal of border crossers as well as a sponsorship program with new legal immigration pathways. The scheme comes amid fervent partisan squabbling, raging humanitarian crises abroad, a rise in domestic nativism and smuggling networks that are increasingly tech-savvy and well-organized. The need for the country’s leaders to find a long range solution and their inability to compromise are at a deadlock.
TIMELINE: 40 years of U.S. border policy, from Reagan and Bush to Biden
Biden’s solution to this complex conundrum follows decades of White House efforts to manage the ebb and flow of migrants along the 2,000-mile southwest border.
Like his predecessors, Biden has tried to balance humanitarian, security and economic needs with logistical realities. This review of how previous presidents tackled these same questions offers context for today’s crisis.
Undocumented Mexican commuters dash to their jobs on the U.S. side of the border, from Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso in February 1987.
Carlos Antonio Rios/Houston ChronicleReagan
During his tenure, President Ronald Reagan ushered in one of the most significant immigration reforms in modern history – the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
The bill created a path to citizenship for law-abiding undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S., a process commonly known as “amnesty.” It also mandated penalties for employers who knowingly hired undocumented immigrants, during a period where many people crossing the border without authorization were Mexicans looking for work.
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Reagan’s amnesty was successful in bringing millions of undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, however it failed to curb future illegal immigration, as it left in loopholes that gave employers the opportunity to hire people with fake documents.
Towards the end of Reagan’s run, civil war in El Salvador and governmental repression in China triggered a spike in asylum seekers from those countries. By the time George H.W. Bush took office, Congress had created Temporary Protected Status to offer some of these migrants time-limited work permits so they could stay and work in the country legally, though it did not offer a permanent visa.
President Ronald Reagan, in the Roosevelt Room, signs the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
National ArchivesClinton
During the 1980s, southwest border officials went from processing relatively few asylum seekers to hundreds of thousands by the 1990s, according to Muzaffar Chishti, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
“Numbers explain everything,” said Chishti. He attributes stricter asylum policies to that uptick in Central American asylum seekers at the border.
That increase, along with a newly Republican majority Congress in 1994, set a more authoritative tone towards migrants during the Clinton administration. The president deployed 400 border agents and fleets of new vehicles to patrol the border near El Paso.
El Paso Border Patrol Agent Alfonso Trujillo does his best to police the 1,952 miles that separate the US from Mexico in February 1987.
Carlos Antonio Rios/Houston ChronicleAdditionally, the Republican-led Congress drafted a major immigration bill to hasten deportation for people crossing the border illegally, a process called “expedited removal.” Exemptions were made for people who passed a credible fear interview: If they told border agents they feared persecution at home, they would be allowed to enter and make their case before an immigration judge.
By 1997, a total of 6,300 border agents were policing the southwest border, roughly twice the number the feds had employed in 1987, according to the Cato Institute.
Bush
President George W. Bush campaigned on comprehensive immigration reform. Any hope of legislative change was dashed within the first year of his administration, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks reframed border and immigration policy with a new laser focus on homeland security.
Early in the Bush administration, Congress created a Department of Homeland Security and within the new agency, Customs and Border Protection. The move consolidated the border, customs, safety and security arms of the U.S. government under one roof.
In 2006, Congress authorized 850 miles of border fence and additional Border Patrol staff. But the influx of migrants only grew and, by 2007, the undocumented immigrant population reached a peak of 12.2 million people.
Obama
Facing pressure over this record-breaking undocumented population, President Barack Obama focused, especially during his first term, on removing undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S., earning him the moniker “deporter-in-chief.”
His administration also saw an uptick of migrants arriving for humanitarian reasons. When Obama took office, just 1{c024931d10daf6b71b41321fa9ba9cd89123fb34a4039ac9f079a256e3c1e6e8} of border crossers were either asylum seekers or migrant children traveling alone. By 2018, that share ballooned to roughly 33{c024931d10daf6b71b41321fa9ba9cd89123fb34a4039ac9f079a256e3c1e6e8}, according to analysis by the Migration Policy Institute.
In response, in 2012, Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allowed undocumented young people brought to the U.S. as children to obtain work authorization and remain in the U.S. with temporary protection from deportation.
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By the end of his tenure, Obama had deported more than 1.2 million people, more than any other president, the undocumented population had declined to 10.7 million and Border Patrol had 17,000 agents patrolling as roughly 650 miles of fencing blocked entries along the southwest border, according to the Cato Institute.
Trump
After campaigning on a strong anti-immigrant, nativist platform, President Donald Trump made historic moves to limit the legal avenues for asylum seekers seeking humanitarian relief in the U.S. and curb the number of unauthorized border crossers.
In 2018, Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy prompted the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents in an effort to deter migrants from arriving at the border.
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The Trump administration implemented three additional policies which effectively barred certain migrants from getting asylum: the transit ban, Remain in Mexico and Title 42. Efrén Olivares, deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and other attorneys, have said these policies violate international treaties, international human rights laws, and domestic laws.
By the end of Trump’s term, with COVID-19 raging, border officials were denying immigrants access to asylum by quickly removing them from the country through Title 42, under a provision of the U.S. health code.
Biden
After a dip in border crossings in 2020, during the first year of pandemic-era restrictions, the number of crossings spiked and reached record numbers when President Joe Biden took office – even though Title 42 remained intact.
Political and economic turmoil in Latin America and the Caribbean during the pandemic spurred historic numbers along with the migrant misperceptions that Biden had more welcoming border policies.
“Biden’s immigration rhetoric during his campaign may have been the biggest pull factor for people coming to the border,” said Chishti, the migration policy analyst.
People, mostly recently arriving Cubans, line up to sign up for federal benefits at YMCA International Services on Aug. 15, 2022, in Houston. Hundreds of Cubans are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border and coming to Houston-area refugee resettlement agencies for help starting new lives in this region. Houston historically has not been a destination for Cuban immigrants.
Yi-Chin Lee/Staff photographerSavvy smugglers would misrepresent Biden’s policies to migrants, giving the false impression the border was open — misinformation that was amplified by social media.
Now, Biden’s new proposal expands the use of Trump-era Title 42 expulsions, allowing border officials to quickly send away migrants at the border and stop them from seeking asylum, while also providing safe, legal opportunities for Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans to enter the country.
Houston immigration attorney Ruby Powers said after years of inconsistencies of how asylum seekers are treated at the border, she sees the new plan as a step in the right direction.
“I think we’re turning a corner and trying to be more humane and understanding,” said Powers, “It’s not perfect, but I think I’m seeing some improvement.”
