WASHINGTON — Democrats who long blistered the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies are suddenly in a tough political bind.
The Biden administration is responding to a wave of children crossing the southern border into the U.S. with some of the very tactics that evoked moral outrage from Democrats when former President Donald Trump embraced them. That includes accommodating children in hastily improvised lockups, spurring Republicans to argue that Democrats are now the ones throwing “kids in cages.”
The moment leaves many Democrats with few good options. There’s little appetite to condemn President Joe Biden in the same terms as Trump. Biden, after all, is pushing for a massive immigration overhaul that includes prized goals such as a pathway to citizenship for millions and has spoken of the need to treat those entering the U.S. with compassion.
But in taking a softer stance, Democrats and immigration advocates also risk being branded by the GOP as hypocrites.