SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — President Biden's State of the Union address is getting mixed reactions from people on both sides of the aisle when it comes to immigration, from local immigrant rights activists to a former border patrol agent giving perspective to the challenges they face.
On one hand, some think Biden is entirely to blame for the immigration problem at our border, others think he is conceding too much on border security, and not doing enough to create a pathway to citizenship.
Thursday night, President Biden said he is ready to sign a bipartisan border bill while talking about the border situation, he was met with cheers, boos, and interruptions.
The president says the bill would hire more border agents, immigration judges, and asylum officers to process asylum cases faster, and give the president the authority to temporarily shut down the border when the number of migrants is overwhelming.
Former San Diego Border Patrol agent and supervisor, Eric Swanson, was not impressed.
"What has he done? You’re letting everybody through, you’re not vetting them all, you’re letting them go into one of the nicest cities in America, six to seven hundred a day," said Swanson who is now retired and living in Louisiana.
He feels rules aren’t being followed and says the proposed bill won’t fix things. Swanson doesn’t think the president’s claim that the Border Patrol union endorses it is accurate.
"There’s a right way to come here and there’s a lot of people that weren’t born here that love this country as their own because they did it the right way," says Swanson.
For immigrant rights advocates and those who’ve worked with migrants in San Diego post-release, the president didn't say enough about a plan for a pathway to citizenship.
"I think it was great he even mentioned the words because I think even that language of a pathway to citizenship hasn’t been as present," says Dr. Roberto Hernandez, an associate professor of Chicano Studies at SDSU.
Dr. Hernández feels the president is conceding more and more on border security and not a plan for those who want to live and work in this country.
"So, in many ways, this is more concessions to this push for border security when we’ve been securing the border for the last 20 years," says Dr. Hernandez.
The bipartisan border bill Biden mentioned during his State of the Union failed to pass the Senate last month.
