Between shifting standards, their shifting blame, and shifts in who is in control, the border remains a mess.

There has been some notable improvement about the border crisis from the standpoint of the Biden administration — at least the press has agreed to stop covering it as much as they have in past weeks. Seems that pesky Project Veritas releasing troubling images of packed cages benevolent holding cells in illegal immigrant internment camps itinerant visiting care facilities motivated the media to stop covering things so ardently.

This does not mean things have improved at the border, and for evidence of this just look at the sheer confusion in the administration. Press Secretary Jen Psaki gave her attempted spin yesterday in blaming the surge that Joe Biden created on the previous administration. One problem, Jen — while it may have begun under Trump, Joe Biden has encouraged a surge of people so high,  the numbers are the highest seen in two decades. This is like blaming a flooded basement pipe burst on someone upstairs turning on a faucet.

One other detail from yesterday of disarray was the new announcement of raising the maximum allowable amount of immigrants for the fiscal year. The telling word there is “new”, as this has been an ever-shifting standard from Biden himself. As Politico notes in its headline, the Biden administration “reverses on its refugee cap reversal.” This is because Biden has reverted to a previously announced cap number of 62,500, which is a shift from Trump’s previously low number that Biden readapted after he had declared originally going with 62,500, which itself was a shift from a higher he had promised while campaigning.

The President has been rather fluid on the matter as a result of getting influenced by various parties each time he has made a declaration on a figure. This is not leadership; this is rudderless reactionary decision-making, and it has been exhibited repeatedly on this same immigration issue. Among his first acts as President was instituting a number of executive orders, one-quarter of which were immigration-based. Now he is wrestling with a problem he created and is meandering all the while.

After demonizing Trump’s caging of children Joe has revisited that practice, the only distinction being the use of euphemisms to describe his cramming of youths in holding cells. After he swore to end deportations, the Biden administration quickly began shipping out new arrivals, and the same goes for the border wall. After demonizing Trump and declaring angrily he would not build ‘’one more foot’’ of the fence, the new administration realized a need to shore up gaps where people were flowing across. 

Then there is the off and then off yet again work of Kamala Harris. Biden announced that his VP would be tasked with taking point on immigration, something that seemed a surprise to the Vice President’s office. Nothing instills cynicism better than an administration that appears incapable of communicating with itself. Later, the VP acquiesced and did undertake the job title — just not the job. VP Harris still has yet to make an appearance at her responsibility; despite this demonstrated sloth, the President continues to assign more duties unto her.

This is all a sign of an administration incapable of dealing with a problem, one that took them mere weeks to have manifest. It appears for now that Joe has settled on a figure for them to deal with the influx of new arrivals. Just give him some time — I am sure a number of grouchy voices will perk up, leading to yet another change in policy from the unsure-footed leaders of the country.