Name: Ex-Biden official reflects on administrations immigration policy
Uploaded: 2025-12-10T00:56:21.514Z
Duration: 4 min 41 s
Description: New reporting from The New York Times argues that former President Joe Biden ignored warnings for years that could have prevented the massive increase in border crossings at the southern border. Michael LaRosa, former press secretary for Jill Biden, joins with his reaction.

New reporting from The New York Times argues that former President Joe Biden ignored warnings for years that could have prevented the massive increase in border crossings at the southern border. Michael LaRosa, former press secretary for Jill Biden, joins with his reaction.

Washington

Former Biden press secretary Michael La Rosa discussed recent reports that President Biden's administration received early warnings about a potential spike in border crossings due to campaign promises and external factors. La Rosa confirmed these warnings matched his own experience, noting that the administration was highly sensitive to political pressures, particularly from Latino communities and progressive groups.

He explained that Biden, as an institutionalist, believed immigration reform required legislative action rather than executive orders. However, the administration's efforts to adopt a more humane approach in response to previous policies led to an escalation of the border crisis, ultimately affecting Latino voter support in the 2024 election. La Rosa concluded that political considerations often outweighed other factors in shaping the administration's immigration policy.

Ex-Biden official reflects on administration's immigration policy

There was some new reporting over the weekend from the New York Times, and it argued that for years, former President Biden ignored warnings that could have prevented a massive increase in border crossings at the southern border. The article reads, in one part, quote, Mr. Biden's policy advisors sounded the alarm before he even won the election. In August of 2020, several aides wrote a memo cautioning Mr. Biden's inner circle that his promises, coupled with pent-up demand from the Trump years and economic hardship from COVID, could provoke a spike in border crossings. Michael La Rosa joins me now. He's former press secretary for Joe Biden. I said before we went to break that you have thoughts. What are your thoughts? Lots of thoughts. So first of all, anybody, any self-respecting Democrat would not be able to sort of defend what's in this report. There's no amount of spin. What do you believe to be true? I believe it all tracks with everything that I observed. And more or less, I would say, it tracks with the culture of the White House and our approach to a lot of issues. Specifically on this, I also think it's important to set the table, keep everything in context. One is that Joe Biden is an institutionalist at his core. So we are operating under the 86th Simpson-Marzulli Act. We are still operating under — The last time Congress passed, the president signed immigration reform. Correct. We are operating under the law that is on the books. And he, like most Democrats, believe that the problem with the law can only be fixed by changing the law or making a new one. Getting new legislation. That executive action will not fix the ultimate problem of the immigration and the border. The other thing is, we were dogged throughout that primary and that general campaign by the Latino community, who didn't trust him. They didn't trust him, not because of Trump, but because of Obama. They wanted to know, at every turn, how can we trust you not to put our kids in — Because there was a time when President Obama was accelerating deportations in order to win the confidence of Republicans, with whom he was trying to negotiate a legislative compromise on immigration. Correct. And in the interim, he was called the deporter-in-chief. Correct. But which also led to a lot of family separations. And the Trump folks used that as a deterrent and, you know, really pushed the envelope. So, Biden had to make assurances during the campaign. That's all we did. We were scared to death of the Latino community. And that didn't change in the White House. In fact, it accelerated. We were — somebody said sensitive to politics. Well, sensitive is like putting it lightly. Sensitive to the left. We were fearful of the left, fearful of Latinos and the Latino interest groups, fearful of Congress, that any — Fearful to the detriment of the presidency and the country? Yeah. I mean, that also tells you that he was never not going to run for re-election, because we were always so nervous about keeping the Latino community in our coalition, because we knew we needed it. And we knew that there was mistrust going into the White House and that any change would not satisfy the Latino community. So we overcompensated and reacted to the excesses of Trump's executive orders by trying to be more humane. But it exploded the crisis in the process. And it looks like, from what we read, he was warned. To the extent that the crisis became so pronounced that Democrats lost Latino voters in 2024, the very coalition the president was so, in your words, alarmed about losing. Yeah. Look, there's a couple of lessons, I think, for Democrats to learn. I think one is that insularity can be a problem for people, when you are denied information, when you're denied polling information, for example. But — So do you think he didn't know, or do you think he knew and decided differently? No, I think that he was more convinced by the politics than anything else. I actually believe, probably at his core, he's actually generationally not in sync with the Democratic Party on — or, you know, on the Democratic Party, today's Democratic Party. I think he would actually have preferred a tougher position on the border. But I think the politics was more of a priority. And the advisers closest to him also empowered to express that and keep the policy where it was. He eventually used executive action. It was the 11th hour of the final year, and it was all because of Donald Trump forced his hand. And perceived as such by the electorate. Michael LaRosa, always a pleasure. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

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