President Joe Biden’s new border security executive order angered both hard-line conservatives and progressive immigration activists in near-equal measure on Tuesday, but the move could bump his stock with moderates ahead of the 2024 general election.
Immigration and border security have steadily climbed the ranks of issues most important to voters ahead of November, and, on its face, Biden’s order marks a clear move to the right compared to his immigration policies over the past three-plus years.
Multiple Democratic operatives tell the Washington Examiner that Tuesday’s executive action could help Biden “flip the script” on the issue with moderate voters and shame congressional Republicans for “bowing to Trump” in tanking the Senate’s bipartisan immigration reform package earlier this year.
“Republicans wanted to play politics on the border, and this is where it landed them,” one strategist close to Biden’s campaign claimed. “Heading into November without any of the credit for addressing …