Morning Report — Biden’s border dilemma

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 02/23/24 6:32 AM ET

Editor’s note: The Hill’s Morning Report is our daily newsletter that dives deep into Washington’s agenda. To subscribe, click here or fill out the box below.

President Biden remembers when former President Obama was hesitant to alter immigration policy under his own say-so after publicly arguing it was up to Congress.

During a reelection campaign in 2012, Obama changed his mind.

“This is not amnesty; this is not immunity. This is not a path to citizenship. It’s not a permanent fix,” Obama announced five months before Election Day while unveiling the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) deportation waiver program.

“THIS IS A TEMPORARY STOPGAP measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while giving a degree of relief and hope to talented, driven, patriotic young people,” he said. “Precisely because this is temporary, Congress needs to act.”

The Department of Homeland Security policy that averted deportation for people who had made their way as undocumented children to the U.S. triggered conservative criticism and court challenges. But Congress did not send immigration reform legislation to Obama’s desk. He was reelected.

Former President Trump, who said early in his term that he empathized with DACA beneficiaries, waited nine months before using his executive authority in 2017 to “wind down” openings for new “DREAMER” applicants. “I am not going to just cut DACA off, but rather provide a window of opportunity for Congress to finally act,” he said while blasting Obama. “There can be no path to principled immigration reform if the executive branch is able to rewrite or nullify federal laws at will,” Trump said.

FAST FORWARD TO 2024: Congress has again balked at enacting immigration changes — this time for migrants trying to gain entry. Biden, a witness to endless border debates and in 2021 a border crisis denier, is now campaigning for reelection amid an electorate hostile to “open borders” and less charitable about sharing U.S. public benefits. In 2020, Biden campaigned against Trump’s use of his executive sway to bar Muslims, child migrants, asylum-seekers and even seasonal workers whose skills were sought by American farmers and businesses.

While Obama opened a door to young migrants already in the United States during an election year, the White House on Thursday said Biden is mulling the opposite — closing some doors under existing law as a way to respond to critics who agree with Trump that migration was and remains a national security problem.

BIDEN IS WEIGHING EXECUTIVE OPTIONS that might address a key policy that was included in a now-scuttled bipartisan Senate bill to deny asylum to some border-crossers, The New York Times first reported.

The Hill: Biden wrestles with a tough political choice.

The concept of shutting out some asylum-seekers under newly imposed criteria is exceedingly unpopular among some on the left who recoil in disbelief that Biden might attempt to triangulate Trump’s policies in an effort to defeat him, if the former president, as anticipated, captures the GOP nomination.

The Hill: Immigration world and progressives warn Biden against reported asylum crackdown.

To them, it flies in the face of a campaign strategy devoted to denouncing Trump, drawing sharp contrasts with his policies and promising voters that Biden stands for the rule of law and the salvation of democracy.

The White House cautioned reporters Thursday that Biden cannot invent a substitute for new immigration legislation. Legal challenges are a certainty. The president is not close to a decision, they hastened to explain.

“No executive action, no matter how aggressive, can deliver the significant policy reforms and additional resources Congress can provide and that Republicans rejected,” White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said in a statement.

A decision is not imminent, officials told reporters. A trial balloon went up and it may stay there.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

▪ Biden met with the widow and daughter of Alexei Navalny during a trip to California on Thursday and the White House posted photos of the trio. The sudden death last week of the Russian opposition leader after “a walk” in prison has been blamed on President Vladimir Putin.

▪ 🚨 House GOP shutdown fears grow: “We could be in a world of hurt.”

▪ 🐼 Giant pandas are coming back to U.S. zoos — starting with the San Diego Zoo. And the nation’s capital could be next, a Chinese official hinted this week.

LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is battling for survival in her home state of South Carolina ahead of Saturday’s GOP primary. Though she says she will stay in the race at least until Super Tuesday on March 5, Haley badly needs some kind of surprise if she is to stay relevant in the GOP contest. In The Memo, The Hill’s Niall Stanage writes that despite her best efforts, the big picture for Haley remains bleak.

Despite Trump’s 30.7 point lead in South Carolina, according to The Hill and Decision Desk HQ’s average of polls, Haley remained committed to staying in the race in a Thursday interview on CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper.

“What I’m trying to tell all Republicans and anybody, independents as well, anybody that’s voting in those primaries, is, if you want a change in our country, which I think the entire country wants a change, we won’t get a change if we don’t win an election,” Haley said. “Donald Trump will not win the general election. You can have him win any primary you want. He will not win a general election. We will have a female president of the United States. It will either be me or it will be [Vice President] Kamala Harris. But if Donald Trump is the nominee, you can mark my words, he will not win a general election.”

Haley has in recent days stressed that the U.S. “will have a female president,” using the statement to highlight doubts some voters have about electing Biden for a second term. Haley pointed to polling that shows a majority of Americans say 81-year-old Biden and 77-year-old Trump are “too old” to run for president (Axios).

Meanwhile, the Alabama Supreme Court ruling jeopardizing access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) has left Republicans across the country scrambling to stake out positions on a procedure that is broadly popular with Americans. Haley said on CNN that while she believes an embryo is a life, “we don’t want fertility treatments to shut down. We don’t want them to stop doing IVF treatments. We don’t want them to stop doing artificial insemination.”

Trump has remained largely quiet on the issue, giving ammunition to the Biden campaign, which has railed against the former president, accusing Trump of being responsible for current reproductive rights restrictions across the South and elsewhere. The campaign’s positioning reflects the emerging belief among many Democrats that Republicans — already paying an electoral price for the overturning of Roe v. Wade — will be hurt even further by the Alabama ruling. On Thursday, a third clinic in the state chose to pause IVF treatment, citing legal concerns (Politico).

2024 ROUNDUP

▪ Trump further ratcheted up his inflammatory language against Americans who oppose him politically on Thursday by likening them to the foreign enemies that the United States fought in World War II.

▪ Cannabis advocates say Biden is missing a political opening to sway young voters with federal action to address disparate overcriminalization of marijuana, which impacts minority communities.

▪ A Democratic consultant who worked for a rival presidential campaign paid a New Orleans magician to use artificial intelligence to impersonate Biden for a robocall that is now at the center of a multistate law enforcement investigation.

▪ In a sign of how eagerly the GOP seeks to flip Maryland’s Senate seat, Trump is expected to set aside his feud with former Gov. Larry Hogan, the likely GOP nominee.

▪ Trump’s possible victory in November has some people he’s targeted in the past planning for fight or flight, fearing they could be at risk of professional, legal or other forms of hostile retribution.

▪ Democrats will likely need to win four new seats across the country to take control of the House in the 2024 elections. California offers multiple opportunities.

▪ New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said Thursday he was very optimistic about the future of the Republican Party and the country, saying Trump “won’t be here” forever and at some point the GOP will no longer be loyal to him.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House convenes for a pro forma session at 11:30 a.m.

The Senate will hold a pro forma session at 3 p.m.

The president at 10:45 a.m. will welcome the nation’s governors to the White House during their annual winter meeting in Washington. Biden will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 1:45 p.m. in the Oval Office accompanied by the vice president.

Vice President Harris will join the East Room event with governors this morning and speak at 11 a.m..

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will chair a meeting at 10:30 a.m. with the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

First lady Jill Biden this morning will join the president and vice president in welcoming the nation’s governors to the East Room during the National Governors Association meeting.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m.

Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Amy Coney Barrett will speak at 2:30 p.m. at the National Governors Association conference. C-SPAN will broadcast their remarks.

ZOOM IN

INTERNATIONAL

BIDEN WILL ANNOUNCE a new wave of sanctions against Russia today in the wake of Navalny’sdeath and his meeting with the late opposition leader’s wife and daughter. The administration had signaled earlier this week they plan to announce a package of sanctions in response to Navalny’s death in a penal colony and the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During a summit in June 2021, Biden warned Putin that if Navalny died, the consequences would be devastating for Russia. Administration officials have held back on previewing their sanctions. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller described the sanctions as a “robust” package aimed at choking off the Russian war machine (The Hill).

“You should expect them to follow the general direction of our past sanctions, as well as some sanctions specifically related to the death of Alexei Navalny,” Miller said.

But Western sanctions have not proved particularly effective against Russia. Politico reports that while Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine had a temporary impact, Moscow and its allies have largely succeeded in reconfiguring supply chains — with the help of China, Hong Kong and countries in Russia’s backyard like Kazakhstan and NATO member Turkey.

TWO YEARS OF WAR in Ukraine have left lasting changes. The era of peace in Europe is all but gone and Russia, emboldened by uncertainty about U.S. aid to Ukraine, wants to try again to seize Kyiv. The Ukrainian military is in trouble — tactically, financially, in terms of ammunition — although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has played down recent defeats, and Iran is supplying Russia with about 400 ballistic missiles.

▪ BBC: How two years of war in Ukraine changed Russia.

▪ The Washington Post: What the Pentagon has learned from two years of war in Ukraine.

ISRAELI BOMBS FLATTENED A MOSQUE and destroyed homes in Rafah, Gaza, on Thursday among a surge of violence in the city, while the leader of Hamas was in Egypt for talks that Gazans hope could bring a truce and head off a full-blown assault on the city. In Khan Younis, Israeli forces withdrew from the Nasser Medical Complex a week after raiding it, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The World Health Organization had said earlier it aimed to evacuate some of the roughly 140 patients stranded there, where Palestinian officials said bodies of dead patients had begun to decompose amid power cuts and fighting. Christopher Lockyear, the head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) told the United Nations Security Council that children who survive the war will not only bear the visible wounds of traumatic injuries, but the invisible ones too (Reuters).

“These psychological injuries have led children as young as 5 to tell us that they would prefer to die,” Lockyear said.

THE VOLUME OF AID delivered to Gaza has collapsed in recent weeks as Israeli airstrikes have targeted police officers who guard the convoys, U.N. officials say, exposing them to looting by criminal gangs and desperate civilians. On average, only 62 trucks have entered Gaza each day over the past two weeks, according to U.N. figures — well below the 200 trucks per day Israel has committed to facilitating (The Washington Post).

▪ The Wall Street Journal: The White House and Arab states are ramping up efforts to broker a deal that would pause the fighting in Gaza and free hostages, with members of Israel’s war Cabinet indicating signs of progress after weeks of a stalemate.

▪ The New York Times: A worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and a death toll approaching 30,000, has brought a wave of condemnation against Israel’s ongoing military operation, and is testing the support of even its staunchest ally, the United States.

▪ Axios: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s post-war plan for Gaza, unveiled Thursday, doesn’t rule out a role for the Palestinian Authority and stresses Israel will only allow reconstruction to take place after the enclave is demilitarized.

A TROVE OF LEAKED DOCUMENTS from a Chinese state-linked hacking group shows that Beijing’s intelligence and military groups are attempting large-scale, systematic cyber intrusions against foreign governments, companies and infrastructure. Hackers of one company are claiming to be able to target users of Microsoft, Apple and Google. The files, which were posted to a public website last week, revealed an eight-year effort to target databases and tap communications in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, India and elsewhere in Asia. They also showed a campaign to closely monitor the activities of ethnic minorities in China and online gambling companies. U.S. intelligence officials see China as the greatest long-term threat to American security and have raised alarm about its targeted hacking campaigns (The Washington Post and The New York Times).

“We rarely get such unfettered access to the inner workings of any intelligence operation,” said John Hultquist, chief analyst of Mandiant Intelligence, a cybersecurity firm owned by Google Cloud. “We have every reason to believe this is the authentic data of a contractor supporting global and domestic cyberespionage operations out of China.”

ELSEWHERE

LUNAR LANDING

Moon lander Odysseus made it to the lunar surface upright on Thursday and transmitted a weak signal that Houston-based flight controllers scrambled to improve. Intuitive Machines, which has NASA as a client and celebrated the first U.S. spacecraft to reach the surface in more than 50 years, said it was “working to downlink the first images from the lunar surface.” The targeted lunar landing location on the moon’s South Pole was not immediately confirmed.

TRUMP WORLD

The judge who ordered Trump to pay $354 million in fines, and nearly $100 million in interest, in his civil fraud case in New York denied a request from the former president’s lawyers to delay formalizing his decision. New York state Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron said in a Thursday email he would sign a judgment proposed by the state that finalizes his ruling (CBS News).

“You have failed to explain, much less justify, any basis for a stay,” he wrote, addressing Trump attorney Clifford Robert. “I am confident that the Appellate Division will protect your appellate rights.”

NBC News: Trump on Thursday urged a federal judge to dismiss his classified documents case in Florida on the basis of presidential immunity.

Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy, spurred by a whopping $148 million verdict against him for defaming two Georgia election workers, has provided fresh insight into the former New York City mayor’s finances, write The Hill’s Ella Lee and Zach Schonfeld. The transparency required in bankruptcy proceedings has cracked Giuliani’s finances wide open, shining light on his debts and overall standing. He also owes thousands of dollars in taxes and credit card debt and could owe millions more to voting technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic if he’s found to have defamed them, too.

EDUCATION

🎙️ It’s Black History Month — the one month a year when Americans take time to recognize the contributions Black Americans have made to this country since they were first brought to the U.S. and enslaved. But since 2021, at least 18 states have imposed bans or restrictions on teaching topics of race and gender, according to reporting by Education Week. Some of these bans have even led to the banning of books written by Black authors. In the latest episode of The Hill’s podcast “The Switch Up,” host Cheyanne M. Daniels and reporter Lexi Lonas look at why, despite pushback, telling the stories of Black Americans remains an integral part of understanding U.S. history.

Yale University has now followed Dartmouth University in jettisoning a test-optional admissions policy. Here’s why standardized test scores are again required (The New York Times).

Vanity Fair: Republican lawmakers in West Virginia and Georgia are considering legislation that would pave the way for librarians to face penalties for “obscene” and “harmful” materials checked out by minors.

OPINION

■ Russia’s Ukraine resurgence shows it’s often down but never out, by Hal Brands, columnist, Bloomberg Opinion.

■ Why Vice President Harris is prepared to step in as commander in chief, by Eugene Robinson, columnist, The Washington Post.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Bravo to Morning Report Quiz champs! They Googled or guessed their way through questions about congressional longevity and retirements.

Here’s who went 4/4 this week: Richard E. Baznik, Stan Wasser, Mary Anne McEnery, Patrick Kavanagh, Lynn Gardner, Sawyer Walters, Harry Strulovici, Luther Berg, Lori Benso, Robert Bradley, Terry Pflaumer, Jaina Mehta Buck, John Trombetti, Phil Kirstein, Chuck Schoenenberger, Ki Harvey, Pam Manges and Steve James.

They knew that the late Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), from our list, served in the House for more than 59 years, establishing a record for congressional tenure.

Former Interior Secretary Thomas M.T. McKennan and former Secretary of State Elihu Washburne each served just 11 days in the Cabinet, sharing a record as short-timers.

In 1922, Georgia Democrat Rebecca Latimer Felton became the first woman to serve in the Senate, but for only a day because she was appointed but did not seek election. The victor of a special election quickly succeeded her.

Former President Obama, from our list, served in the Senate but never served in the House.

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger (asimendinger@digital-stage.thehill.com) and Kristina Karisch (kkarisch@digital-stage.thehill.com). Follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter: (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!