Examining the New York Times coverage of the crisis at the southern border in Biden’s America

Abstract

With Biden’s election in 2020, the United States and the world anticipated a major shift in US immigration policy and a different approach to the US–Mexico border crisis. This study examines how media covered this through a textual analysis of 40 news stories published by the New York Times (NYT) between November 2020 and November 2021. It identifies four categories of content: ‘the Biden presidency – an era of hope and positive change’; ‘causes and complexities of the southern border crisis’; ‘critique of the Biden presidency’ and ‘migrant journeys, of confusion, suffering and hope’. Subcategories are also developed for these categories. The findings indicate that though violence in Central America is still a primary driver leading to a migrant surge at the US southern border, climate crises and the COVID-19 pandemic are two major events causing more migrations from Central America as well as bringing in new migrants to the United States from other countries around the world. The study shows that though the NYT does not portray the migrants negatively and offers some context about the causes of the crisis and a critique of the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis, the reporting lacks a long-term perspective about the deeper causes of the crisis.