Warren Splits With Mass. Governor On Biden Border Moves

BOSTON — President Joe Biden’s move to shut down much of the southern border is dividing Democrats in even the bluest of states.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is standing by Biden in the face of progressive backlash over his executive action to suspend asylum claims that went into effect at midnight and leans on the same rule Donald Trump used during his presidency to try and restrict immigration.

But Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — who, like Healey, is a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board — slammed the edict as “a functional ban on asylum” in a statement that said “we can — and should — do better.”

Healey and Warren have been on opposite sides of immigration issues before. Healey lobbied Massachusetts’ congressional delegation to pass the bipartisan border deal that could have funneled more federal dollars to Massachusetts’ costly and overburdened emergency shelter system and tightened immigration rules — including authorizing a similar border shutdown. But Warren stood against it.

Why the divergence? Simply put, Healey has more at stake when it comes to immigration, even though Warren’s the one on the ballot with Biden this fall.

As Massachusetts’ top executive, the buck stops with Healey for handling the influx of migrants that’s stretched the emergency shelter network beyond capacity and cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, even if the blame doesn’t. While few residents fault Healey for the migrant situation, according to a new UMass Amherst/WCVB poll, far more people hold a negative view of how she’s handling it — with 48 percent saying “not too well” or “not well at all” compared to 35 percent who said “somewhat” or “very” well.

The same poll, meanwhile, shows congressional Democrats taking even less of the blame for immigration issues than Healey and puts Warren on track to win reelection in November over any of her three Republican challengers by a sizable margin. The online survey of 700 adults was conducted May 17-30 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

For Healey, backing Biden on the border is also a sign she’s willing to put aside her personal politics to help propel the president to a second term. Healey repeatedly sued the Trump administration over immigration policy. But she told reporters Tuesday that Biden took “important action” that “I strongly support” and again blamed Republicans for Congress’ immigration inaction.

Still, Democratic divisions threaten to overshadow the border move that’s seen as a way for the president to both blunt Republicans’ attacks and make overtures to independent voters on a central campaign issue on which the incumbent is polling poorly. Progressive lawmakers and immigrant advocacy groups have panned Biden for pulling from Trump’s playbook. The American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday it would challenge his administration’s policies in court for much the same reason.

And Massachusetts is again a microcosm of the broader party’s internal divide. State House Speaker Ron Mariano and Reps. Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss quickly lined up behind Biden’s executive action, with Moulton saying it “demonstrates that the [p]resident is serious about the problem” at the southern border.

But progressives railed against it, calling for Biden to instead ease pathways to immigration. Sen. Ed Markey decried Biden’s move in a statement as “irresponsible and ill-advised.” And Rep. Ayanna Pressley said “it is extremely disappointing that this White House would choose to double down on the previous administration’s harmful and flawed immigration policy.”

A version of this story first appeared in Massachusetts Playbook.