Democrats Confront a Surge at the Border

The Democratic-led House on Thursday passed bills that would offer a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, including so-called Dreamers, and eventually grant legal status to almost a million farmworkers and their families.

By holding votes on these targeted bills — rather than the total immigration overhaul that President Biden has proposed — Democratic lawmakers hoped to draw a clear line between themselves and Republicans on some of the more popular and uncontroversial elements of Biden’s broader immigration plan.

They’re pressing what they see as an advantage on an issue where public opinion has moved significantly to the left over the past five years: Polls show that more than four in five voters nationwide now support allowing Dreamers, or immigrants brought to the United States as children, to become citizens.

But that advantage may be under threat, because of an increasingly difficult situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. A flood of asylum seekers and other migrants has arrived since the start of the Biden administration, drawn in part by the new president’s more accommodating tone compared with his predecessor’s.

Republicans have seized upon the surge, labeling it the “Biden border crisis” in a new series of political ads and splashing coverage across conservative media.

As former President Donald Trump’s political career illustrates, there’s arguably no issue that divides conservatives and liberals as starkly as immigration. While the country’s views became decidedly more pro-immigrant during Mr. Trump’s tenure, a hard-line stance against illegal immigration also became one of the primary rallying cries for the G.O.P.

Mr. Biden and his homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, are balancing their desire to reject Trump’s uncompromising approach — particularly with regard to unaccompanied minors, who have arrived at the border this month at a rate of roughly 400 people a day — with an acknowledgment that proceeding with business as usual simply isn’t an option, as tens of thousands of migrants, fleeing insecurity and poverty at home, require housing and processing.

A month ago, immigration didn’t register as a top concern for most Americans. A Pew Research Center poll in early February found that just 38 percent of the country thought that “reducing illegal immigration” should be a major priority among the United States’ foreign policy goals.

That was half the share saying that protecting American jobs should be a top area of foreign-policy focus. And even fewer said that reducing legal immigration should be a priority.

But in a CNN poll released last week, immigration was the only issue, from a list of seven, on which Americans gave Mr. Biden meaningfully negative reviews. Forty-nine percent of respondents disapproved of how he was handling immigration, while 43 percent approved.

Among political independents, he was 15 points in the hole: 53 percent disapproved, 38 percent approved.

Testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee this week, Mr. Mayorkas acknowledged that the situation at the border “is undoubtedly difficult,” and sought to manage expectations. “We are working around the clock to manage it, and it will take time,” he said.

What we know (and don’t) about the vaccine rollout

With coronavirus vaccines quickly becoming available, numerous states are looking to beat President Biden’s goal of offering shots to all adults by May 1.

Alaska and Mississippi have already opened up the vaccine to everyone age 16 or older, regardless of risk factors. Other states — including Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Utah — are aiming to follow suit this month or next.

A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist College poll found that more than three in five Americans age 75 and up have already been vaccinated. But divisions remain: Nearly half of all respondents who reported having voted to re-elect Donald Trump in November said they wouldn’t get a vaccine after it became available.

Vaccine distribution is ultimately up to the states, but Mr. Biden has made a point of grabbing the bull by the horns — positioning the federal government as a kind of air traffic controller for the vaccine rollout.

The $1.9 trillion relief package that he signed last week has a lot to do with that, as it includes large allotments for vaccine distribution and for state and local governments. I caught up with Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a Washington correspondent covering health policy, for a rundown on where things stand — and what we know (and what we don’t) about the Biden administration’s plans.

The relief bill includes billions for vaccine distribution and coronavirus testing, and hundreds of billions for school districts and state and local governments. Is that funding tied to certain benchmarks? How is the administration using this funding to help guide the distribution…