In an unexpected turn of events, Steve Rattner, a former Obama administration official and now an MSNBC contributor, admitted something many didn’t expect to hear: President Biden’s handling of immigration wasn’t exactly his “finest moment.”
During a recent Morning Joe segment, Rattner reflected on the stark shift in border crossings after Biden took office. He didn’t sugarcoat the situation, acknowledging that former President Donald Trump wasn’t entirely off the mark when he claimed border crossings were much lower under his watch.
Here’s the surprising part: Biden’s border numbers spiked dramatically after he stepped into office. Rattner pointed to a chart he’d shared earlier in the week in an op-ed, showing that illegal crossings surged from around 74,000 per month when Trump left office to a staggering 300,000 a month just months later.
“You can see it clearly,” Rattner said, highlighting the rise in border encounters. “Trump wasn’t wrong when he said border crossings were low under him.” And he’s right—things did change quickly. But what followed wasn’t all bad news.
While the numbers climbed, Rattner explained that they’ve started to come back down again, now hovering around 100,000 per month. It’s a sharp drop from that peak of nearly 300,000, but not quite back to the pre-Biden numbers.
What caused the initial spike? Rattner suggested it might have had something to do with some of Biden’s early decisions, like his comments about immigration and his moratorium on deportations. However, the bigger picture shows a lot of fluctuation, something that clearly had political consequences for Biden during election season.
Rattner didn’t shy away from the fact that this back-and-forth in border numbers has been costly for Biden, and that immigration is still a heated topic in the political world.
On the other hand, former President Trump’s spokesperson made it clear that securing the border was part of his mandate, claiming that Trump would have delivered stronger results had he stayed in office.
But despite the political back-and-forth, the facts are there: Since 2021, more than 7.2 million migrant encounters have been recorded at the US-Mexico border. And while arrests for illegal crossings have dipped recently, there’s still the issue of “gotaways”—those who crossed undetected by Border Patrol.
As the debate continues, one thing is clear: Immigration is a major challenge, and the numbers tell a story of their own. Will the US find a solution that sticks? Time will tell, but for now, the border saga is far from over.
