Tough Choices
Good morning, and welcome to a new week. We’re less than six weeks out from Inauguration Day, and today we’ve got the Electoral College formally meeting to cast its ballots for president and vice president (more on that below).
And when the recipients of most of those ballots - that would be Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, of course - take office, they’ll be greeted not just with a divided country in the throes of health, economic, climate, and racial justice crises (sounds about right after four years of Trump), but also with governing challenges that don’t offer easy answers.
Among them, immigration.
Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that new migrant caravans are forming in Honduras, with their eye on crossing the US-Mexico border early next year. And that might just be the beginning:
…they are likely the leading edge of a much more substantial surge toward the border, immigration analysts say, as a worsening economy in Central America, the disaster wrought by Hurricanes Eta and Iota and expectations of a more lenient U.S. border policy drive ever-larger numbers toward the United States.
During the campaign, Biden did pledge to have a more lenient policy, saying that he would build a “fair and humane immigration system” and “secure our border, while ensuring the dignity of migrants and upholding their legal right to seek asylum”.
Those words will have to translate into actions, and it won’t be easy.
How do you deal humanely - after all, immigration is a human issue - with thousands of migrants, maintain security, and not incentivize even greater waves that will overwhelm our border resources, all the while upholding our values as a nation of immigrants? Back to the Times piece:
“The pressures that have caused flows in the past have not abated and, in fact, have gotten worse because of the pandemic. If there is a perception of more-humane policies, you are likely to see an increase of arrivals at the border,” said T. Alexander Aleinikoff, director of the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility at the New School in New York.
“That doesn’t mean that those flows cannot be adequately handled with a comprehensive set of policies that are quite different from Trump’s,” said Mr. Aleinikoff, “but you need a well-functioning bureaucracy to handle it.”
Unfortunately, Biden will be inheriting a lot of bureaucratic dysfunction. The article continues:
Mr. Biden has vowed to begin undoing the “damage” inflicted by the Trump administration’s border policies. He has said he will end a program that has returned tens of thousands of asylum seekers to Mexico and restore the country’s historical role as a safe haven for people fleeing persecution.
But swiftly reversing Trump administration policies could be construed as opening the floodgates, risking a rush to the border that could quickly devolve into a humanitarian crisis.
Some of Biden’s plans will take time - and possibly, Congressional approval. He wants to beef up the case management and asylum application systems, increase training and oversight of ICE, and pass a $4 billion regional assistance package for Central American countries that addresses the high crime and low rates of economic development that spur so many to leave. But those aren’t immediate fixes, and as the article notes, a humanitarian crisis could begin brewing in the meantime.
And on top of that, Biden’s team will be under immense pressure to solve the existing crisis of how to reunite the 628 children who, under Trump administration policies, were separated from their parents but remain in US custody. It will not be easy.
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President-elect Biden’s hope is to begin his administration with a flurry of executive actions that undo many of Trump’s moves and create immediate momentum, then ride that momentum through heavier-lift work, from rebuilding alliances overseas to getting the entire country vaccinated. But any crisis at the border threatens to upend those carefully laid plans, and what starts as a political distraction could easily become a humanitarian disaster - again, people’s lives are at stake.
So, in less than six weeks, Joe Biden will be stepping into the Oval Office. Around that same time, thousands of migrants may be trying to step across the border. And with the Right ready to pounce and the Left unwilling to give much (or any) leeway if it feels Biden isn’t living up to his promises, how best to handle immigration will be one of the many tough choices awaiting him.
What I’m reading
A step-by-step guide to Monday's Electoral College vote | CNN
Since Election Day on November 3, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have certified their votes and named slates of electors, who will meet on Monday to formally cast their ballots for President and Vice President -- the next step in the process of finalizing Biden's victory.
What actually happens when the electors meet?
It's different in each state, and these meetings are scheduled to take place between 10 a.m. ET on the East Coast and 7 p.m. ET in Hawaii. The electors record their votes in writing and then count them. Then, they sign six copies of a Certificate of the Vote. The National Archives will post those Certificates of Vote when they receive them, but if you want to see what they look like, here's Washington State's from 2016, which reflects votes for Hillary Clinton, but also rogue votes for Colin Powell and Faith Spotted Eagle.
Why are there six copies of the results?
This is the 19th century version of a cc'ing different people on an email. According to the National Archives, the six copies go, by registered mail, to:
one copy goes to the president of the US Senate and will be officially counted in the Capitol on January 6
two copies go to the state's secretary of state,
two copies go to National Archives and Records Administration
one copy, a backup, goes to the presiding judge in the district where the electors meet
What happens next?
The USPS has until December 23 to deliver the certificates of vote to the Senate. Congress meets to count the electoral votes on January 6 (Vice President Pence will preside). The winner (Biden) is sworn in January 20.
A good explainer on the (let’s hope drama-free) process that will take place today.
Scoop: Biden weighs Sam Power for USAID | Axios
Joe Biden is considering Samantha Power to head the United States Agency for International Development, which would place a high-profile figure atop foreign aid and coronavirus relief efforts, people familiar with the matter tell Axios.
Why it matters: Installing Power — a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about genocide — would signal the Biden administration plans to revitalize foreign assistance and use it as an instrument of soft power and to achieve humanitarian goals.
…
USAID is an independent government agency but works in tandem with the State Department. The administrator's job requires Senate confirmation, but isn’t part of the Cabinet.
This would be a lower-profile position than what Power had at the UN, but she would bring a tremendous amount of passion, experience, and relationships with foreign leaders to the post. If Biden can find a way to bring her into his administration, either in this or another role, he certainly should.
Op-Ed Urging Jill Biden To Drop The 'Dr.' Sparks Outrage Online | NPR
An opinion column in TheWall Street Journal came under fire over the weekend for asking educator and incoming first lady Jill Biden — who holds two master's degrees and a doctorate in education — to stop using the title "Dr."
In the op-ed published Friday evening, writer and former editor of The American Scholar magazine Joseph Epstein urged Biden to drop the title, a message that public figures and women in academia panned on Twitter as misogynistic both in substance and tone.
"Madame First Lady — Mrs. Biden — Jill — kiddo," begins the piece. "Any chance you might drop the 'Dr.' before your name? 'Dr. Jill Biden' sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic."
Pretty obnoxious op-ed, and a right-on-the-mark response from the incoming first lady - Dr. Biden: