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Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun: More Layoffs Possible

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun: More Layoffs Possible

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Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun

CNBC Exclusive: CNBC Transcript: Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun Speaks with CNBC’s Phil LeBeau on “Squawk on the Street” Today

WHEN: Today, Wednesday, April 29, 2020

WHERE: CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street

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CNBC’s full interview with Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun on Q1 earnings

All references must be sourced to CNBC.

PHIL LEBEAU: Let’s bring in Dave Calhoun, CEO of Boeing joining us remotely today. Dave, we’ve already gone over the numbers, the loss of $1.70 per share in the first quarter. Revenues down about 26%. Give us some perspective in terms of how bad the situation is right now in the commercial airplane market and what you’re hearing back from your customers in terms of future orders, possible deferrals, cancellations, et cetera?

DAVE CALHOUN: Hi, Phil. It’s good to be with you. Before I jump into that question, I’m going to add my thanks, like everyone else, to all of the health care workers, the industry supporting so many of us, trying their best and putting themselves at risk to keep us in good health. The market, as you know, we feel a little bit like we’re the tip of the spear, aviation, in light of all of the shutdowns. Not just here in the United States but pretty much everywhere in the world. The ramifications are big. For the most part, the industry is not interested in taking delivery of airplanes at the moment, and/or prepaying against contracts that we have in hand. It’s a rational result. There’s this moment in time where everyone is sort of frozen trying to contend with the dramatic reductions.

In the United States, passenger traffic at this moment is 95% down from where it was a year ago. That’s remarkable. Schedules -- flight schedules are not down as severely but they are down significantly, simply because the airlines have been allowed to continue with connections and points, just with much less frequently. So, the world market has been stunned. It is a bit frozen. But we remain confident that it will come back.

We talk to airline CEOs every day, every week. Most of the governments have come forward with their support, certainly, here in the United States they have. That has -- there’s been a real thaw with respect to the thinking and the planning forward with respect to markets. So, believe it or not, I’m more confident now than I have been in some time and I believe the thaw is beginning.

PHIL LEBEAU: Dave, you guys are announcing you’ll be cutting your payroll by 10%, basically 16,000 of the company’s 160,000 employees, with the biggest impact being on the commercial airplane division. Are you confident that those job cuts, along with the slower production rates that you’re introducing starting now all the way over the next couple of years, will be enough? In other words, that you guys are taking the steps that will avoid having to come back and perhaps cut even further, let’s say, nine months or a year down the road?

BOEING CEO DAVE CALHOUN: Well, I’m never going to say that with pure authority because I don’t know what the world will look like in nine months. But we have factored in everything we can think of. The recovery with respect to passenger traffic that we modeled is roughly three to five years getting back to the environment that existed pre-COVID. We get back to ’19 levels in three years, and then to get back on the growth track it might take another couple years. So, we’ve been conservative in that respect. Our plans is mostly built around the re-fleeting of airlines. Everyone is looking at their fleet plans.

The retirements are going to be significant, and the investments, while not what they used to be in a growth environment, will continue to be made to get more fuel efficient, cleaner airplanes in the sky and create competitive advantages for each of our airlines. So, that’s what we’ve modeled. We have stress tested the model in as many ways as we can think of. The production rates are tailored for that model. And we believe the markets, the credit markets and the liquidity will be there for us. But I don’t want to suggest that if in nine months there’s another spike, that things won’t be another change.

PHIL LEBEAU: Hey, Dave. Let’s talk about liquidity. You guys have $15.5 billion cash on hand. That’s how much you had at the end of the quarter. But you made it clear, you guys have to borrow billions more, likely from the private market but also potentially from the federal government. Where do things stand in your discussions with the Treasury Department?

BOEING CEO DAVE CALHOUN: Well, we have kept the Treasury Department apprised of our situation for quite some time. I think they know precisely our situation, our needs, broadly. The C.A.R.E.S. Act, the Fed program, in combination, when they got announced, credit markets loosened up a fair amount, which means they have private options or public options available to us. At this stage, just know that we’ll evaluate all of those options. We need liquidity. Our industry needs liquidity. Our supply chain needs liquidity. So, we’ll evaluate all of those options. We’ll file application where appropriate and we’ll be in the public markets.

JIM CRAMER: Cramer. Thank you for coming on. I want to follow up on what Phil just said. To me, the optimal thing for you would just -- because of the way the Federal Reserve is working, giant loans. I would like to think that you could take off the table that you want to go to Treasury and give them loans or stock. People don’t want that. They want to be shareholders of a company that is borrowing money. Not shareholders of a company that’s co-owners with the government. Can’t you take that off the table?

DAVE CALHOUN: Jim, I don’t want to predict outcomes here. We will be in the markets. We will explore all of these options. And we believe we have good credit. We believe in the future of our company and the ultimate ability to pay down debt. So, we’ll be in the credit markets. We’ll do what we have to do to secure liquidity, and we will explore all of these options. But we don’t want to predict an outcome, certainly not at this time.

JIM CRAMER: Okay. Yesterday, we had Gary Kelly on from Southwest, a good client of yours, and one of the things that he said was that a lot of people do want to fly but they don’t know where they want to go to. What it’s come down to for people is I don’t want to get sick, if I go on a plane, I’ll get sick. The truth is you can wear a mask to defend yourself against your next-door neighbor, isn’t it safer to be in a Boeing airplane than it is to be in an office building in terms of air circulation?

BOEING CEO DAVE CALHOUN: Jim, you’re making a great point. And, oftentimes, the public confuses this because it looks like a confined space. But the air on an airplane in the fuselage and in the flight deck gets replaced between every two and three minutes. And the air that recirculates is filtered in that same cycle through a HEPA filter, which is the equivalent of the filter in many ICUs. So, believe it or not, that environment is an amazingly safe environment, with respect to aerosol impacts. And with masks, you’re correct. And that prevents that – that proximity question. So, it really is a much safer environment than most of the public understands.

I do see the industry beginning to rally around all of the protocols that will be required going forward. I don’t want to go too fast because I want it to be as fact-based as it can. And I think all of the agencies that are involved in this, the FAA, the TSA, the CDC, they all similarly want the facts, they want to lay it out the protocols and guidelines, I think, will be reasonable and it will lead to a recovery of our industry.

DAVID FABER: Mr. Calhoun, it’s David Faber. I just want to see if I can get a bit more clarity from you in terms of your various efforts to raise capital. You said you will go to the public markets. There’s some reporting that says you will be offering bonds, a large amount of bonds in the public market soon. Is that going to be the case? And if so, when? And does it mean in any way that you don’t access government aid?

DAVE CALHOUN: I hate to give the same answer to a slightly different question, but we are going to look at all of our options. The public markets are in better shape than they were several weeks ago, post the C.A.R.E.S. Act, post the Fed program. So, we’re going to look at those. We are going to look at the tools that are embedded in the C.A.R.E.S. Act. We’ll look at the Fed program. And we’re going to make decisions that are in the best interest of the Boeing company and our shareholders. It’s -- I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. And I can’t predict the outcomes.

DAVID FABER: Okay.

CARL QUINTANILLA: Hey, Dave. Workforce reduction, 10%, there had been reports that you told some union officials that that percentage could be much higher. Is 10% firm?

DAVE CALHOUN: I don’t know of any facts or reasons why anyone would speculate other than what we’ve announced this morning, which is a 10% enterprise number and a bigger percentage, obviously, in our commercial business. Roughly 45% of our revenue comes from the defense department, the government, and defense programs internationally. So, the headcount reductions in those areas are far, far less as we continue to invest in what are otherwise growth opportunities in those markets.

PHIL LEBEAU: Dave, it’s Phil LeBeau again. You guys have – with the 737 Max -- not publicly said the timeline is slipping and pushing a little bit further into the third quarter for the 737 Max, but from everyone we’ve talked to, it’s clear that’s happening.  What seems to be the issue when it comes to the software glitches, that it seems like you guys identify them, there’s work being done on them, but it seems like a process, a bit of a Groundhog Day where these continue to pop up? Are you confident you can hit that third-quarter delivery or at least, un-grounding of the Max?

BOEING CEO DAVE CALHOUN: Yeah, Phil, we are. Let me start out with saying that the Max program, believe it or not, despite these deferrals or extenuating moments, it’s going very well. The work is going well. The flight tests are going well. We had almost 400 ferry flights, all of them without a hitch. So, it’s all going well. There is a mountain of documentation that has to be completed. Sometimes, the documentation work is confused with what is referred to as a software glitch. We have not had software glitches in the performance of our airplane at all on our test flights or otherwise. So, we are going to complete the documentation.

There’s no doubt COVID and the virtual work that now has to get done between our folks and the FAA, that’s taken a little bit of a toll on this process as well. But I remain confident and constructive about the whole thing. And if I could put a bigger context on it, as you know, the Max for us was a supply issue of course in the first quarter because we paused our production, et cetera. But there was a market, a significant market that has transitioned to a demand issue. Yes, we have 450 airplanes that are ready to be shipped. But we’re working with all of our customers to defer, and to move deliveries, et cetera.

We’re confident we can do it. It’s a priority for us. We’ve moved from a bit of a supply issue to what is now a demand issue. We’ll work our way through it, and we’ll work our way through it steadily. But that’s the big picture.

PHIL LEBEAU: Dave, one last question. And it has to do with COVID-19 and the impact, not only with your company but really all for all industrial manufactures and all really all companies around the world as they start to open up again and get back to work. How slow will you expect this process to be? Because clearly, you’re not going to have people reporting to shifts in the same fashion. There will be safety protocols that have been put in place. How slow do you expect this ramp-up in, not just production, but getting back to work, to be?

DAVE CALHOUN: Well, I’ll describe is a couple of ways. First, we are opening factories as we speak. We are getting back to work. Our big locations are in the Puget Sound and in South Carolina. Our supply chains, believe it or not, are in a little bit of better shape than three weeks ago. If we can rely on the supply chains, and now with our reduced production rates, we do think we can steadily improve.

It will cost us in terms of productivity because of the circumstances you’re describing. We’ve engineered the work differently. We do have different shifts coming in at different times. So, there will be productivity penalties associated with that, probably for a quarter or two. And then, I think we can achieve the kind of stability and maybe even better stability than we had pre-virus, simply because of the reduced rates.

So, I think that’s the way, at least for Boeing, it’s likely to unfold the next couple of quarters. We’re focused first and foremost on the safety of our people. We have taken every precaution we can think of. We get data every day. If we see any trends that work against us, we will not be afraid to take the right actions and suspend again. But at any rate, we’re in a decent place. And like I said at the beginning, I’m feeling a bit of a thaw, and I’m hoping it’s a thaw. We’re going to continue working towards reopening.

PHIL LEBEAU: Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun joining us remotely. Guys, just within a couple hours, the company reporting its first quarter results. We appreciate you joining us. Carl, I’ll send it back to you. Busy morning. I know you have a lot of other big guests and news coming up.

The post Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun: More Layoffs Possible appeared first on ValueWalk.

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President Biden Delivers The “Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President”

President Biden Delivers The "Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President"

Having successfully raged, ranted, lied, and yelled through…

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President Biden Delivers The "Darkest, Most Un-American Speech Given By A President"

Having successfully raged, ranted, lied, and yelled through the State of The Union, President Biden can go back to his crypt now.

Whatever 'they' gave Biden, every American man, woman, and the other should be allowed to take it - though it seems the cocktail brings out 'dark Brandon'?

Tl;dw: Biden's Speech tonight ...

  • Fund Ukraine.

  • Trump is threat to democracy and America itself.

  • Abortion is good.

  • American Economy is stronger than ever.

  • Inflation wasn't Biden's fault.

  • Illegals are Americans too.

  • Republicans are responsible for the border crisis.

  • Trump is bad.

  • Biden stands with trans-children.

  • J6 was the worst insurrection since the Civil War.

(h/t @TCDMS99)

Tucker Carlson's response sums it all up perfectly:

"that was possibly the darkest, most un-American speech given by an American president. It wasn't a speech, it was a rant..."

Carlson continued: "The true measure of a nation's greatness lies within its capacity to control borders, yet Bid refuses to do it."

"In a fair election, Joe Biden cannot win"

And concluded:

“There was not a meaningful word for the entire duration about the things that actually matter to people who live here.”

Victor Davis Hanson added some excellent color, but this was probably the best line on Biden:

"he doesn't care... he lives in an alternative reality."

*  *  *

Watch SOTU Live here...

*   *   *

Mises' Connor O'Keeffe, warns: "Be on the Lookout for These Lies in Biden's State of the Union Address." 

On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden is set to give his third State of the Union address. The political press has been buzzing with speculation over what the president will say. That speculation, however, is focused more on how Biden will perform, and which issues he will prioritize. Much of the speech is expected to be familiar.

The story Biden will tell about what he has done as president and where the country finds itself as a result will be the same dishonest story he's been telling since at least the summer.

He'll cite government statistics to say the economy is growing, unemployment is low, and inflation is down.

Something that has been frustrating Biden, his team, and his allies in the media is that the American people do not feel as economically well off as the official data says they are. Despite what the White House and establishment-friendly journalists say, the problem lies with the data, not the American people's ability to perceive their own well-being.

As I wrote back in January, the reason for the discrepancy is the lack of distinction made between private economic activity and government spending in the most frequently cited economic indicators. There is an important difference between the two:

  • Government, unlike any other entity in the economy, can simply take money and resources from others to spend on things and hire people. Whether or not the spending brings people value is irrelevant

  • It's the private sector that's responsible for producing goods and services that actually meet people's needs and wants. So, the private components of the economy have the most significant effect on people's economic well-being.

Recently, government spending and hiring has accounted for a larger than normal share of both economic activity and employment. This means the government is propping up these traditional measures, making the economy appear better than it actually is. Also, many of the jobs Biden and his allies take credit for creating will quickly go away once it becomes clear that consumers don't actually want whatever the government encouraged these companies to produce.

On top of all that, the administration is dealing with the consequences of their chosen inflation rhetoric.

Since its peak in the summer of 2022, the president's team has talked about inflation "coming back down," which can easily give the impression that it's prices that will eventually come back down.

But that's not what that phrase means. It would be more honest to say that price increases are slowing down.

Americans are finally waking up to the fact that the cost of living will not return to prepandemic levels, and they're not happy about it.

The president has made some clumsy attempts at damage control, such as a Super Bowl Sunday video attacking food companies for "shrinkflation"—selling smaller portions at the same price instead of simply raising prices.

In his speech Thursday, Biden is expected to play up his desire to crack down on the "corporate greed" he's blaming for high prices.

In the name of "bringing down costs for Americans," the administration wants to implement targeted price ceilings - something anyone who has taken even a single economics class could tell you does more harm than good. Biden would never place the blame for the dramatic price increases we've experienced during his term where it actually belongs—on all the government spending that he and President Donald Trump oversaw during the pandemic, funded by the creation of $6 trillion out of thin air - because that kind of spending is precisely what he hopes to kick back up in a second term.

If reelected, the president wants to "revive" parts of his so-called Build Back Better agenda, which he tried and failed to pass in his first year. That would bring a significant expansion of domestic spending. And Biden remains committed to the idea that Americans must be forced to continue funding the war in Ukraine. That's another topic Biden is expected to highlight in the State of the Union, likely accompanied by the lie that Ukraine spending is good for the American economy. It isn't.

It's not possible to predict all the ways President Biden will exaggerate, mislead, and outright lie in his speech on Thursday. But we can be sure of two things. The "state of the Union" is not as strong as Biden will say it is. And his policy ambitions risk making it much worse.

*  *  *

The American people will be tuning in on their smartphones, laptops, and televisions on Thursday evening to see if 'sloppy joe' 81-year-old President Joe Biden can coherently put together more than two sentences (even with a teleprompter) as he gives his third State of the Union in front of a divided Congress. 

President Biden will speak on various topics to convince voters why he shouldn't be sent to a retirement home.

According to CNN sources, here are some of the topics Biden will discuss tonight:

  • Economic issues: Biden and his team have been drafting a speech heavy on economic populism, aides said, with calls for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy – an attempt to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans and their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

  • Health care expenses: Biden will also push for lowering health care costs and discuss his efforts to go after drug manufacturers to lower the cost of prescription medications — all issues his advisers believe can help buoy what have been sagging economic approval ratings.

  • Israel's war with Hamas: Also looming large over Biden's primetime address is the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which has consumed much of the president's time and attention over the past few months. The president's top national security advisers have been working around the clock to try to finalize a ceasefire-hostages release deal by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins next week.

  • An argument for reelection: Aides view Thursday's speech as a critical opportunity for the president to tout his accomplishments in office and lay out his plans for another four years in the nation's top job. Even though viewership has declined over the years, the yearly speech reliably draws tens of millions of households.

Sources provided more color on Biden's SOTU address: 

The speech is expected to be heavy on economic populism. The president will talk about raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. He'll highlight efforts to cut costs for the American people, including pushing Congress to help make prescription drugs more affordable.

Biden will talk about the need to preserve democracy and freedom, a cornerstone of his re-election bid. That includes protecting and bolstering reproductive rights, an issue Democrats believe will energize voters in November. Biden is also expected to promote his unity agenda, a key feature of each of his addresses to Congress while in office.

Biden is also expected to give remarks on border security while the invasion of illegals has become one of the most heated topics among American voters. A majority of voters are frustrated with radical progressives in the White House facilitating the illegal migrant invasion. 

It is probable that the president will attribute the failure of the Senate border bill to the Republicans, a claim many voters view as unfounded. This is because the White House has the option to issue an executive order to restore border security, yet opts not to do so

Maybe this is why? 

While Biden addresses the nation, the Biden administration will be armed with a social media team to pump propaganda to at least 100 million Americans. 

"The White House hosted about 70 creators, digital publishers, and influencers across three separate events" on Wednesday and Thursday, a White House official told CNN. 

Not a very capable social media team... 

The administration's move to ramp up social media operations comes as users on X are mostly free from government censorship with Elon Musk at the helm. This infuriates Democrats, who can no longer censor their political enemies on X. 

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers tell Axios that the president's SOTU performance will be critical as he tries to dispel voter concerns about his elderly age. The address reached as many as 27 million people in 2023. 

"We are all nervous," said one House Democrat, citing concerns about the president's "ability to speak without blowing things."

The SOTU address comes as Biden's polling data is in the dumps

BetOnline has created several money-making opportunities for gamblers tonight, such as betting on what word Biden mentions the most. 

As well as...

We will update you when Tucker Carlson's live feed of SOTU is published. 

Tyler Durden Fri, 03/08/2024 - 07:44

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What is intersectionality and why does it make feminism more effective?

The social categories that we belong to shape our understanding of the world in different ways.

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Mary Long/Shutterstock

The way we talk about society and the people and structures in it is constantly changing. One term you may come across this International Women’s Day is “intersectionality”. And specifically, the concept of “intersectional feminism”.

Intersectionality refers to the fact that everyone is part of multiple social categories. These include gender, social class, sexuality, (dis)ability and racialisation (when people are divided into “racial” groups often based on skin colour or features).

These categories are not independent of each other, they intersect. This looks different for every person. For example, a black woman without a disability will have a different experience of society than a white woman without a disability – or a black woman with a disability.

An intersectional approach makes social policy more inclusive and just. Its value was evident in research during the pandemic, when it became clear that women from various groups, those who worked in caring jobs and who lived in crowded circumstances were much more likely to die from COVID.

A long-fought battle

American civil rights leader and scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw first introduced the term intersectionality in a 1989 paper. She argued that focusing on a single form of oppression (such as gender or race) perpetuated discrimination against black women, who are simultaneously subjected to both racism and sexism.

Crenshaw gave a name to ways of thinking and theorising that black and Latina feminists, as well as working-class and lesbian feminists, had argued for decades. The Combahee River Collective of black lesbians was groundbreaking in this work.

They called for strategic alliances with black men to oppose racism, white women to oppose sexism and lesbians to oppose homophobia. This was an example of how an intersectional understanding of identity and social power relations can create more opportunities for action.

These ideas have, through political struggle, come to be accepted in feminist thinking and women’s studies scholarship. An increasing number of feminists now use the term “intersectional feminism”.

The term has moved from academia to feminist activist and social justice circles and beyond in recent years. Its popularity and widespread use means it is subjected to much scrutiny and debate about how and when it should be employed. For example, some argue that it should always include attention to racism and racialisation.

Recognising more issues makes feminism more effective

In writing about intersectionality, Crenshaw argued that singular approaches to social categories made black women’s oppression invisible. Many black feminists have pointed out that white feminists frequently overlook how racial categories shape different women’s experiences.

One example is hair discrimination. It is only in the 2020s that many organisations in South Africa, the UK and US have recognised that it is discriminatory to regulate black women’s hairstyles in ways that render their natural hair unacceptable.

This is an intersectional approach. White women and most black men do not face the same discrimination and pressures to straighten their hair.

View from behind of a young, black woman speaking to female colleagues in an office
Intersectionality can lead to more inclusive organisations, activism and social movements. Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

“Abortion on demand” in the 1970s and 1980s in the UK and USA took no account of the fact that black women in these and many other countries needed to campaign against being given abortions against their will. The fight for reproductive justice does not look the same for all women.

Similarly, the experiences of working-class women have frequently been rendered invisible in white, middle class feminist campaigns and writings. Intersectionality means that these issues are recognised and fought for in an inclusive and more powerful way.

In the 35 years since Crenshaw coined the term, feminist scholars have analysed how women are positioned in society, for example, as black, working-class, lesbian or colonial subjects. Intersectionality reminds us that fruitful discussions about discrimination and justice must acknowledge how these different categories affect each other and their associated power relations.

This does not mean that research and policy cannot focus predominantly on one social category, such as race, gender or social class. But it does mean that we cannot, and should not, understand those categories in isolation of each other.

Ann Phoenix does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Biden defends immigration policy during State of the Union, blaming Republicans in Congress for refusing to act

A rising number of Americans say that immigration is the country’s biggest problem. Biden called for Congress to pass a bipartisan border and immigration…

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President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address on March 7, 2024. Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images

President Joe Biden delivered the annual State of the Union address on March 7, 2024, casting a wide net on a range of major themes – the economy, abortion rights, threats to democracy, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine – that are preoccupying many Americans heading into the November presidential election.

The president also addressed massive increases in immigration at the southern border and the political battle in Congress over how to manage it. “We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it,” Biden said.

But while Biden stressed that he wants to overcome political division and take action on immigration and the border, he cautioned that he will not “demonize immigrants,” as he said his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, does.

“I will not separate families. I will not ban people from America because of their faith,” Biden said.

Biden’s speech comes as a rising number of American voters say that immigration is the country’s biggest problem.

Immigration law scholar Jean Lantz Reisz answers four questions about why immigration has become a top issue for Americans, and the limits of presidential power when it comes to immigration and border security.

President Joe Biden stands surrounded by people in formal clothing and smiles. One man holds a cell phone camera close up to his face.
President Joe Biden arrives to deliver the State of the Union address at the US Capitol on March 7, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

1. What is driving all of the attention and concern immigration is receiving?

The unprecedented number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border right now has drawn national concern to the U.S. immigration system and the president’s enforcement policies at the border.

Border security has always been part of the immigration debate about how to stop unlawful immigration.

But in this election, the immigration debate is also fueled by images of large groups of migrants crossing a river and crawling through barbed wire fences. There is also news of standoffs between Texas law enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol agents and cities like New York and Chicago struggling to handle the influx of arriving migrants.

Republicans blame Biden for not taking action on what they say is an “invasion” at the U.S. border. Democrats blame Republicans for refusing to pass laws that would give the president the power to stop the flow of migration at the border.

2. Are Biden’s immigration policies effective?

Confusion about immigration laws may be the reason people believe that Biden is not implementing effective policies at the border.

The U.S. passed a law in 1952 that gives any person arriving at the border or inside the U.S. the right to apply for asylum and the right to legally stay in the country, even if that person crossed the border illegally. That law has not changed.

Courts struck down many of former President Donald Trump’s policies that tried to limit immigration. Trump was able to lawfully deport migrants at the border without processing their asylum claims during the COVID-19 pandemic under a public health law called Title 42. Biden continued that policy until the legal justification for Title 42 – meaning the public health emergency – ended in 2023.

Republicans falsely attribute the surge in undocumented migration to the U.S. over the past three years to something they call Biden’s “open border” policy. There is no such policy.

Multiple factors are driving increased migration to the U.S.

More people are leaving dangerous or difficult situations in their countries, and some people have waited to migrate until after the COVID-19 pandemic ended. People who smuggle migrants are also spreading misinformation to migrants about the ability to enter and stay in the U.S.

Joe Biden wears a black blazer and a black hat as he stands next to a bald white man wearing a green uniform and a white truck that says 'Border Patrol' in green
President Joe Biden walks with Jason Owens, the chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, as he visits the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, on Feb. 29, 2024. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

3. How much power does the president have over immigration?

The president’s power regarding immigration is limited to enforcing existing immigration laws. But the president has broad authority over how to enforce those laws.

For example, the president can place every single immigrant unlawfully present in the U.S. in deportation proceedings. Because there is not enough money or employees at federal agencies and courts to accomplish that, the president will usually choose to prioritize the deportation of certain immigrants, like those who have committed serious and violent crimes in the U.S.

The federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 142,000 immigrants from October 2022 through September 2023, double the number of people it deported the previous fiscal year.

But under current law, the president does not have the power to summarily expel migrants who say they are afraid of returning to their country. The law requires the president to process their claims for asylum.

Biden’s ability to enforce immigration law also depends on a budget approved by Congress. Without congressional approval, the president cannot spend money to build a wall, increase immigration detention facilities’ capacity or send more Border Patrol agents to process undocumented migrants entering the country.

A large group of people are seen sitting and standing along a tall brown fence in an empty area of brown dirt.
Migrants arrive at the border between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to surrender to American Border Patrol agents on March 5, 2024. Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images

4. How could Biden address the current immigration problems in this country?

In early 2024, Republicans in the Senate refused to pass a bill – developed by a bipartisan team of legislators – that would have made it harder to get asylum and given Biden the power to stop taking asylum applications when migrant crossings reached a certain number.

During his speech, Biden called this bill the “toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in this country.”

That bill would have also provided more federal money to help immigration agencies and courts quickly review more asylum claims and expedite the asylum process, which remains backlogged with millions of cases, Biden said. Biden said the bipartisan deal would also hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers, as well as 4,300 more asylum officers.

Removing this backlog in immigration courts could mean that some undocumented migrants, who now might wait six to eight years for an asylum hearing, would instead only wait six weeks, Biden said. That means it would be “highly unlikely” migrants would pay a large amount to be smuggled into the country, only to be “kicked out quickly,” Biden said.

“My Republican friends, you owe it to the American people to get this bill done. We need to act,” Biden said.

Biden’s remarks calling for Congress to pass the bill drew jeers from some in the audience. Biden quickly responded, saying that it was a bipartisan effort: “What are you against?” he asked.

Biden is now considering using section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to get more control over immigration. This sweeping law allows the president to temporarily suspend or restrict the entry of all foreigners if their arrival is detrimental to the U.S.

This obscure law gained attention when Trump used it in January 2017 to implement a travel ban on foreigners from mainly Muslim countries. The Supreme Court upheld the travel ban in 2018.

Trump again also signed an executive order in April 2020 that blocked foreigners who were seeking lawful permanent residency from entering the country for 60 days, citing this same section of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Biden did not mention any possible use of section 212(f) during his State of the Union speech. If the president uses this, it would likely be challenged in court. It is not clear that 212(f) would apply to people already in the U.S., and it conflicts with existing asylum law that gives people within the U.S. the right to seek asylum.

Jean Lantz Reisz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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