Biden 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.
In This Episode
- Intro
- Who are you, Charanya?
- Matt Yglesias platforms an anonymous racist
- Everyone loves a Hollywood narrative
- Who are “The Groups”?
- 2023: Preparing for a big shift in border policy
- Is it legal to make people wait in Mexico?
- Carrots and sticks
- What is a “Pull Factor”? What *isn’t*?
- Premature declaration of victory
- “The numbers were staggering”
- Going to Congress – who thought this was a good idea?
- 2024: Who “fixed” the border?
- The human cost
- How do we learn the right lessons?
- “There wasn’t a switch that could be flipped”
- A lack of decisiveness
- A five-point plan for the next President
- “We can’t get scared away from our vision”
- Conclusion
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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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…
Next EpisodeThe Heartbreak of Immigration Reform, with Esther Olavarria
Everyone knows that our immigration system is broken, so why hasn’t Congress fixed it for over 35 years? What you may not know is how close we came to comprehensive immigration reform – not once, not twice, but four times. Esther Olavarria was one of the foremost people working behind the scenes to make it happen, first as a staffer to Senator Ted Kennedy and later as a senior official under President Obama. This is her eyewitness account – of hope and despair, war rooms and whip counts, and honest answers on why it’s so hard for Congress to get the job done.