Biden Made 'Mistake' Ignoring Border Issue, Campaign Adviser Says

Representative Veronica Escobar, who has a prominent role in Joe Biden's reelection bid, said the president and the Democratic Party made a critical "mistake" by ignoring the border crisis.

Escobar, a Texas Democrat whom Biden tapped in April to be a national co-chair of his campaign, admitted she's been frustrated with her party's response to the surge of migrants at the southern border.

"I'll be very candid," she told Politico's Deep Dive podcast on Friday. "I wish the Democratic Party, the president included, had leaned in on this issue early on. It's what I advocated—when we were in the majority, we should lean in and we should explain to the American people how difficult this is and how multifaceted the solution has to be."

She continued, "But nobody wanted to talk about it. And I think that was a strategic mistake on the part of my party."

The crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border continues to escalate into a major issue for the president. He's been attacked by Republicans for rolling back Trump-era immigration policies since 2022, but those efforts are moving at full speed as the 2024 election draws near.

The Biden administration has spent the last month in a heated dispute with Texas Governor Greg Abbott over his response to the migrant surge, and on Wednesday, a Republican-led House committee advanced impeachment articles against Biden's homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.

The historic number of encounters that Border Patrol has recorded in the past couple of years has also begun to influence voters, many of whom are frustrated with the border crisis. A recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that immigration had overtaken inflation as the main voter concern, with 35 percent listing it at No. 1.

None of that is good news for the president. The majority of swing state voters, 61 percent, say he is somewhat to blame for the wave of migration, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey released Wednesday. By comparison, only 30 percent pointed to the Trump administration, while 38 percent held congressional Republicans responsible.

Also, voters in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan said they're more likely to trust Trump than Biden, 52 to 30 percent, on immigration.

Newsweek reached out for comment to Escobar and the Biden campaign by email.

"This is the toughest domestic policy issue that we are facing today, without a doubt," Escobar said on Friday. "Congress has used this as a political football for a long time, and the American people are sick of it....There is this sense that the issue has gotten so bad that something has to happen."

Escobar gave the president credit for trying various strategies to address the border crisis but said that "at every turn, he gets criticized by all sides."

The congresswoman did not hold back on some criticism of Biden, namely his recent comments pledging to "shut down" the border if a Senate immigration bill making its way through Congress passes. She said she was "not happy" about those remarks, warning that the hawkish approach could cause "more death, more persecution, more sexual assault, just horrific conditions for migrants."

"I live on the border. I have daily communication with the Border Patrol. I talk to our shelter operators, our local government leaders," said Escobar, whose district sits on the Mexico border. "And something that has consistently not worked is rapid expulsion."

Escobar is serving as the reelection campaign's co-chair with Representatives Jim Clyburn and Lisa Blunt Rochester, Senators Chris Coons and Tammy Duckworth, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and former DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.