Trump is not in office, but his Supreme Court is and this week they blocked the Biden administration from ending migrant expulsions. This program Title 42, originated under the Trump administration during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowed customs and border agents to return the migrants to their home countries.
Biden had sought to end the policy last April, announcing the program was no longer needed because vaccines and treatments had reduced the impact of the virus.
The Court said it would hear arguments in February; in the meantime, it won’t mean anything to the steady flow of migrants being stopped at the border and returned to their homeland.
This is another victory for Trump and his cohort and they are sure to make sport and take shots at him as he vacations in the Caribbean. It may not be the best time to take a break from presidential ordeals, particularly with the airline cancellations and the pandemic numbers rising again, and while the optics of all this looks bad, whatever can be done is not hampered by his not being at home in the White House.
Perhaps the break from the tired routine is an opportunity to shore up his plans for re-election, again something the GOP is sure to criticize and ask that his flight like hundreds of others be canceled.
A recent poll was not favorable but that should be of no concern since it was apparently coming from an unfavorable source. Nonetheless, Biden and his team cannot afford to ignore the nipping at the heels, the negative put-downs as the GOP gropes with its own strategy for 2024.
Finding a chink in Biden’s armor will preoccupy his enemies on both sides of the aisle and while he should possess a singled-minded outlook, his vision must be panoramic because some of the barbarians are at the gate, others are already inside and ready to make mischief.
