The Daily - Trump Shut the Door on Migrants. Will Biden Open It?

Caitlin Dickerson, an immigration reporter for The Times, says there is one word that sums up the Trump administration’s approach to border crossing: deterrence. For nearly four years, the U.S. government has tried to discourage migrants, with reinforced walls, family separation policies and threats of deportation. Those policies have led to the appearance of a makeshift asylum-seeker camp of frayed tents and filthy conditions within walking distance of the United States. Today, we ask: What will the legacy of President Trump’s immigration policies be? And will anything change next year? Guest: Caitlin Dickerson, an immigration reporter for The New York Times. For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Read the latest edition here. Background reading: This is what we saw inside the tent camp on the U.S.-Mexico border.The Trump administration’s immigration policies have not deterred pregnant women from trying to enter the United States. Here are some of their experiences.A federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program designed to shield young, undocumented immigrants from deportation. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Duration: 31m
Broadcast on: 08 Dec 2020
Audio Format: other

Those policies have led to the appearance of a makeshift asylum-seeker camp of frayed tents and filthy conditions within walking distance of the United States.

Today, we ask: What will the legacy of President Trump’s immigration policies be? And will anything change next year?

Guest: Caitlin Dickerson, an immigration reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

This is what we saw inside the tent camp on the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Trump administration’s immigration policies have not deterred pregnant women from trying to enter the United States. Here are some of their experiences.
A federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program designed to shield young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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this podcast is supported by TikTok. Sometimes the most interesting discoveries are the ones you weren't looking for. That happens every day on TikTok. A science experiment can spark a whole new interest. A recipe you stumble upon can become a meal you make for the people you love, and a restaurant you've never heard of might become your new favorite spot. That's the thing about TikTok. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads. Your next discovery is waiting on TikTok. From New York Times, I'm Michael Bolarro. This is a Daily. Today, late last week, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to fully reinstate DACA. But much of the president's agenda on immigration remains in place, shutting out large groups of migrants. My colleague, Katelyn Dickerson, on what that legacy will mean for immigration during the Biden administration. It's Tuesday, December 8th.

Katelyn, you recently traveled to the Mexican border. I wonder if you can describe what you saw there. When I went to Mexico this past fall, I visited this area right on the edge of the Rio Grande in the city of Matamoros. It's within eyeshot, actually, of Texas. And one of the D.S.

I visited this tent camp. It's behind a chain-link fence, and it's teaming with different colored tents. A lot of them are kind of in tatters now. And after the sun came up and the day began, people lined up and started waiting for a warm meal.

I think the first one that I saw was basically beans and rice and some syrupy, sweet juice that little kids were drinking. You know, eventually this makeshift village just came to life. Ten residents here are waiting in line for firewood that they can use to cook in the oven because they've set up inside their cans. I saw people lined up at wash stations. You know, holding onto children's onesies and socks, trying to hand wash their clothing. You see laundry that's kind of muddied hanging from trees to dry that's gotten wet from hurricane rains. Another thing that really stuck out to me was the stench. It smells really bad. It's clear that there's no real formal system for sanitation. You saw porta potties that I think were both not enough in terms of their numbers and also just hadn't been cleaned out in a really long time. And so it was really inescapable, even though you're right by the water, that smell, and then the heat just kind of hangs over you. And Caitlin, who are the people living in what seems like pretty squalid conditions here? These are migrants from, for the most part, Central and Latin America. Certainly a lot of people come from places that have been pretty terrorized by gang violence and lawlessness. And so, you know, a lot of people in the camp have personally experienced extortion attempts, have personally had loved ones and family members killed, and they've requested asylum in the United States, and they've been turned back into Mexico under this policy known as Romain in Mexico that's been in place since the very beginning of 2019. There are hundreds of people living in this camp, but it's one of several that have popped up along the border. And they've grown into what are essentially refugee camps right on America's doorstep, which, you know, is a historical first. The country's never seen anything like this before. And Caitlin, what was the rationale from the Trump administration for the remain in Mexico policy? I have to assume the Trump administration understood on some level that sending people who are seeking asylum for these kinds of horrible conditions back to Mexico would mean putting them in very difficult situations. So what was the argument for the original policy? I think if you use one word to sum up the Trump administration's approach to border crossing and trying to shut off border crossing its deterrence, right? It's this idea of discouraging people from coming to the United States and especially those who don't qualify. So President Trump and his administration felt there were so many people applying for asylum, for whom this program was never intended, that they had to create a deterrent effect. They had to create circumstances that would be so difficult that it would discourage anybody who didn't absolutely have to try to

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