Biden and the Border (Part 1), with Charanya Krishnaswami
Nobody’s happy with how the Biden administration handled the U.S./Mexico border, but it’s hard to find an honest reckoning.
That’s why you need to hear the story of Charanya Krishnaswami, a senior advisor at the Department of Homeland Security during all four of those tumultuous years. She’s brilliant, insightful, and even hilarious – all while pulling back the curtain on how so many smart people struggled to make good decisions.
This episode is Part 1 of Charanya’s story, starting on day one of the Biden administration and taking us through the mounting panic of the second year…
In This Episode
- Intro
- Biden and the border – many failures, no simple heroes or villains
- Why you need to hear Charanya Krishnaswami
- Honest post-mortems are good; acronyms are bad
- 2021: Starting up a new presidential administration… via Zoom
- Biden did not reverse all of Trump’s immigration policies on day one
- What is Title 42?
- Why no president can “just shut down the border”
- We have asylum laws for a reason; remember the St. Louis
- How the Title 42 border rules made everything worse
- COVID, lawsuits, and chaos
- What happened when Haitian refugees arrived in Del Rio
- Why did Border Patrol feel betrayed?
- 2022: Attempted solution #1: The Asylum Officer Rule
- Why did this solution die on the vine?
- The vibe shift: Make Number Go Down
- Freakout as the pandemic is ending
- A strange and obscure silver lining
- Attempted solution #2: The Transit Ban
- “Skim milk protection”
- What happened when Ukrainian refugees arrived in Tijuana
- Conclusion (until Part 2…)
Learn More
Amanda, Claire, and Doug express their own personal opinions on The Melting Pod. This episode was produced by Michael Palmer (palmer.media). Read more about the topics in this episode:
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Welcome to The Melting Pod
The Melting Pod brings you stories of our dysfunctional immigration system, and where we go from here. In this inaugural episode, Claire reveals how everything going on with ICE is even worse than it looks; Amanda explains how Trump is de-legalizing millions of people who thought they were protected; and Doug shatters any remaining illusions that MAGA is okay with legal immigrants. Plus we introduce ourselves, drag the New York Times a bit, and give you a few things to be hopeful about in 2026. Join us!
Next EpisodeBiden and the Border (Part 2), with Charanya Krishnaswami
You don’t serve four years as a senior official in Biden’s Department of Homeland Security without seeing some things. This episode is Part 2 of Charanya Krishnaswami’s never-before-told story, walking us through the unprecedented border of crossings in 2023 and the misunderstood reasons those numbers dropped in 2024 – far too late for political redemption. Along the way, we call out some ugly racism on the Democratic side of the aisle, lament the futility of Congress, and conclude with Charanya’s clear-eyed border plan for the next President.