New: The Timing Is Questioned as Biden Admin Makes Big Change on Venezuela Deportations

News of the Biden administration's abrupt 180 on the building of a wall at the southern border was met with a mixture of meltdowns and "it's about danged time" cries from Capitol Hill/Texas politicos, many of whom remember Biden's election-year pledge that "there will not be another foot of wall constructed in my administration."

Not surprisingly, Joe Biden himself bumbled his way through questions on the matter, declaring in so many words that he had no choice since the money had previously been appropriated and that he didn't believe border walls worked.

During the Thursday press briefing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also struggled to explain the Biden administration's position on the matter, particularly the seeming disagreement between Biden and Dept. of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas on whether there was an "immediate need" for resuming the building of the wall.

But in the midst of Team Biden's messaging woes as it relates to securing the border, another big announcement was made: They will restart deportations of Venezuelan illegal immigrants back to their own country:

The Biden administration is restarting direct deportations to Venezuela in an attempt to reduce unlawful crossings along the southern border by Venezuelan migrants, who have journeyed to the U.S. in record numbers in recent weeks, four current and former U.S. officials told CBS News.
For years, the U.S. did not carry out regular deportations to Venezuela due to its strained diplomatic relationship with that country's socialist government, which faces U.S. sanctions due to its human rights abuses and repressive policies. But officials now plan to resume direct deportations there to send back Venezuelans who enter the U.S. unlawfully and lack a legal basis to remain in the country, according to the current and former officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the move before a formal announcement.

The Department of Homeland Security confirms: "the United States is announcing today that it will resume direct repatriations of Venezuelan nationals who cross our border unlawfully and do not establish a legal basis to remain." pic.twitter.com/Yn6ItWo9UL
— Camilo Montoya-Galvez (@camiloreports) October 5, 2023

The Biden administration's previous policies towards illegals from Venezuela have been all over the map, with them at one point being deported to Mexico and at other times granted temporary protections against deportations, allowing them to work in the U.S. instead. It's unclear whether they intend to keep the revised policy in place long-term.

The timing of this announcement along with the one on their about-face on the border wall is understandably being questioned.

Critics on the right have correctly pointed out that the abrupt shift in policies here likely would not have happened had Democrat mayors and governors in blue states not been begging Biden to Do Something™ about the illegal immigrants that have been bused/flown to their part of the country by fed up red state governors like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, not to mention the blue border town mayors in Texas who have gone off on Joe Biden over the dire situation.

In any event, though it remains to be seen whether these reversals will bring relief to impacted communities, one thing that is fairly certain in all of this is that Biden's attitude towards secure borders has not changed, as his remarks earlier Thursday made clear. That's something Republicans should be hammering from now until Election Day 2024, as it's one of several key areas on which voters give Biden low marks - and for good reasons.