As Democrats and Republicans in Washington negotiated bills to overhaul the asylum system and tighten border security earlier this year, many in Cochise County, Arizona, a conservative stronghold, watched with bated breath.
The bill promised to secure more federal funding that has helped local mayors and community leaders provide housing and bus services for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. But after former President Donald J. Trump derailed the proposal, even some of Biden's staunchest Republican critics in the region expressed disappointment.
But as news spread this week of Biden's latest moves to implement some of the failed bill's asylum provisions, Republicans and Democrats alike in the region, who have long felt their needs have been ignored, were met with skepticism.
Douglas Mayor Donald Huish, a level-headed Republican, questioned whether some action would be better than nothing.
“On the one hand, I'm happy to get any help,” he said. “On the other hand, I just want the problem to be solved.”
Kathleen Gomez, a Democrat-turned-Republican running for the county Board of Supervisors, called it a “bandaid on a severed artery.”
The reaction from Cochise County underscores how much of a political headache the border has become for Biden and the challenges he faces as he seeks reelection on a platform of restrictive immigration policies that he once pledged to reverse.
Biden's shift on immigration allows him to address a major political weakness: More U.S. voters now care about the situation at the country's southern border and polls show they are more likely to trust Trump's handling of the issue than Biden.
But in key political battlegrounds like Arizona, residents reacted to the order with mixed emotions this week. Some praised Biden for at least trying to address residents' concerns. But many remain unsure whether the order will sway voters or go far in solving underlying problems residents have been grappling with for years.
On the left, Biden's harshest critics said he is cozying up to right-wing politics at a time when anti-immigrant rhetoric from Republican candidates and lawmakers has grown uglier and more dangerous.
Leo Murrieta, director of the immigrant rights group Make the Road Nevada Action, argued that Biden was treating immigrants and their families like pawns to attract voters. “This is a political gamble that's not going to pay off like they think it will.”
Biden campaign officials and supporters counter that the measure is just one part of many efforts to address tough problems Republicans have refused to solve. The order aims to curb illegal border crossings but makes exceptions for some migrants, including unaccompanied children and victims of human trafficking. Other Biden administration efforts aim to speed up immigration cases, increase legal routes into the country and better tackle human trafficking and the fentanyl trade.
“President Biden understands that being president isn't about theater, it's about taking action on the issues our communities care about most,” said Kevin Munoz, a senior spokesman for the Biden campaign. “President Biden is taking action today, despite the failure of Trump and his allies to do anything.”
Some Democratic strategists see the move as strategically and politically smart, arguing it softens the blow on an issue Republicans have been wielding like a cudgel and allows Biden and other vulnerable Democratic candidates in battleground states to run on a message that has long eluded them: that they are the party of solutions to the immigration problem.
Matt Bennett, co-founder of the centrist group Third Way, called Biden's latest move a “last resort.” Biden has already clashed sharply with Trump over his visit to the U.S.-Mexico border. Biden has pushed for bipartisan legislation that Republicans have blocked twice, first because Trump opposed it. Now Biden has signed an executive order.
“He has made it clear that he is doing everything he can, within the limits of his authority,” he said.
But some Democratic and Latino strategists have warned that Biden will need to do more to differentiate himself from Trump on immigration.
Biden's move to appear tougher on policing could help neutralize the issue in the eyes of leftists and independents in Midwestern states far from the southern border, such as Wisconsin and Michigan, they say.But Biden's actions could be different in the Southwest, where the day-to-day benefits and challenges of coexisting with southern neighbors are less abstract.
Polls show a majority of Hispanic voters support increased border enforcement, but actions and rhetoric seen as mirroring those of Trump risk dampening turnout among young Hispanics, a constituency Biden has struggled to bolster and which has been credited with driving key Democratic victories in states like Arizona.
“They need to be very clear about how this is different from what Donald Trump has done in the past,” said Christian Ramos, an adviser to Way to Win, a national progressive network that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on congressional races.
The worries of mayors like Huish began to worsen last year as migration began to rise to record levels in Cochise County, a major transportation hub in southeastern Arizona that includes the cities of Naco, Bisbee, Douglas and Sierra Vista.
Federal funds allocated through a county grant program allowed leaders to help bus migrants from various ports of entry to cities across the country. Catholic churches were transformed into shelters. Volunteers raised donations and organized themselves to help the newcomers. It was a story repeated across the U.S., along the border and in other cities, often relying on makeshift networks of lawyers and community leaders to feed, house and transport the migrants to their future destinations.
The number of people crossing illegally into the U.S. from Mexico fell 50 percent in January, when Border Patrol reported encountering more than 124,000 migrants, but the county, like other counties in Arizona's southern tip, remains under strain.
Unlike the failed bipartisan legislation, the order does not increase federal funding, and it's unclear what effect the measures will have on this stretch of border, where law enforcement officials say many migrants are trying to avoid detection rather than going to authorities to apply for asylum.
Leaving Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Douglas, where he regularly attends Mass, Esgardo Torres, a lifelong Democrat and public school custodian, said he has spoken to many of the migrants who were detained there until this spring. He said he believes there is a “crisis” at the southern border, but that increased security — more fences, more guards and more walls — hasn't done much to stop people seeking a better life in the U.S., he said. That has meant more police harassment of border residents, especially those of Hispanic descent.
“I've seen it so many times, it takes six or seven officers to catch just one or two people,” said Torres, 74, calling it “ridiculous.”
Anne English, a conservative Democrat who serves on the county Board of Supervisors, said Biden's order would only invite costly litigation. “We seem to be in the middle of political theater,” she said.
Huish had a message for party members who rushed to criticise the administration's new direction.
“You don't like it? Well, offer me something,” he said in apparent frustration, adding that at least Biden had the tenacity to do so – but that he would still vote for Trump.