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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPresident Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled a halt to asylum processing at the U.S. border with Mexico when illegal entries reach a threshold that he deems excessive.
The measure takes effect immediately because the new policy is triggered when arrests for illegal entry reach 2,500. About 4,000 people already are entering the U.S. each day. It was a major policy shift on a critical election-year issue that’s exposed Biden to Republican criticism over an unprecedented surge in new arrivals in an election year.
THE MEASURE
Advocates say it will put migrants in danger and violate international obligations to provide safe haven to people whose lives are threatened. The Biden administration denies that.
Legal challenges are imminent.
There are also serious questions of whether the new measure can stop large-scale migrant entries. Mexico has agreed to take back migrants who are not Mexican, but only in limited numbers. And the Biden administration doesn’t have the money and diplomatic support it needs to deport migrants long distances, to China and countries in Africa, for example.
Those who claim asylum today are generally free to live and work in the United States while their claims slowly wind through overwhelmed immigration courts.
Some questions and answers about Biden’s presidential proclamation:
HOW WILL THIS PLAY OUT ON THE GROUND?
The threshold triggers a halt on asylum until average daily arrests for illegal crossings fall below 1,500 for a week straight. The last time crossings were that low was in July 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic-related asylum restrictions known as Title 42 carried no legal consequences and encouraged repeat attempts. Now, migrants will be issued deportation orders even if they are denied a chance to seek asylum. That will expose them to criminal prosecution if they try again and ban them for several years from legally entering the country. It’s a key difference.
“We are ready to repatriate a record number of people in the coming days,” Blas Nuñez-Neto, assistant homeland security secretary for border and immigration policy, said in a conference call for Spanish-language reporters.
Migrants who express fear for their safety if they’re deported will be screened by U.S. asylum officers but under a higher standard than what’s currently in place. If they pass, they can remain to pursue other forms of humanitarian protection, including those laid out in the U.N. Convention Against Torture.
Unaccompanied children are exempt, raising the possibility that some parents may send their sons and daughters across the border without them.
WHAT ROLE DOES MEXICO PLAY?
A critical one.
The U.S. has limited funding to fly people home to more than 100 countries, including many in Africa and Asia. It also lacks diplomatic sway and logistical arrangements to deport large numbers to many countries, including China, Russia and Venezuela.
A 1997 court order generally limits detention of families with a child under 18 to 20 days, a highly ambitious and perhaps unrealistic turnaround time to screen people who express fear of deportation and then put them on a flight.
Even for single adults, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has enough funds to only detain about 34,000 people at a time.
Mexico has agreed to take back up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, in addition to Mexicans. Its commitment does not extend to other nationalities.
This year, Mexico has also made it far more difficult for migrants to reach the U.S. border, largely by preventing them from riding freight trains and stopping them on buses to turn them around to southern Mexico. While Mexican authorities are blocking migrants’ advance, relatively few are deported, causing many to be stuck in Mexican cities far from the U.S. border.
Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s foreign relations secretary, told reporters last month that Mexico won’t allow more than 4,000 illegal entries a day. President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who takes office Oct. 1, is expected to continue policies of her mentor and Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
HAS THIS BEEN TRIED BEFORE?
This is the latest in a series of measures under the Biden and Trump administrations to deter asylum-seekers, none of which have had lasting impact.
In May 2023, Biden imposed similar obstacles to asylum for anyone who crossed the border illegally after passing through another country, such as Mexico. A federal appeals court allowed those restrictions to stay in place while advocates challenge it, but it appears to have little impact.
Illegal crossings fell after last year’s restrictions took effect, but the lull was short-lived as the number of screening officers was inadequate for the enormous task. The rule’s application in only a small percentage of arrests showed how budgets can fail to match ambitions.
Biden invoked a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the president to ban entry for groups of people if their presence “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” President Donald Trump used these powers to ban entry of people from some predominantly Muslim countries, though advocacy groups are expected to argue that Biden failed to meet that “detrimental” criterion.
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He opens the border to 10,000,000 new illegals, then says let’s try to decrease the rate a little bit. What a revolting and despicable man destroying this country.
Oh, whatever. Give it a rest. Conservatives had many, many opportunities to reform immigration, fund the legal processing system, and they even had a whole bipartisan Senate bill in front of them to resolve the issues but rejected it because Trump didn’t like the optics of handing Biden a win. I’m so tired of hearing conservatives opine about how awful Biden is when they will never lift a finger to do anything themselves. They’re lazy and whiney. At least Biden gives somewhat of a crap vs. the Republicans who use immigrants as a fear-mongering tactic.
By the way, asylum-seekers aren’t illegal immigrants. That is a legal and valid method of immigration to the United States. Deal with it.
States’ budgets are crumbling from the onslaught of 10,000,000 new illegals who need housing, food, phones, healthcare.
All while American citizens suffer under crushing inflation.
Biden is a sick, sick man. Absolutely repulsive. He really is someone who would take naked showers with his daughter Ashley, traumatizing her for life.
What a very weird thing to say. Anyway, inflation is now down to 3.4%, which is still a little high but far from “crushing.” Yes, States are having to use their resources to address this, which makes it all the more maddening that Republicans refuse to do anything but do exactly what you do: make really bizarre and baseless claims about the President and thinking that it’s some kind of revelation. It’s why Republicans got wrecked at the ballot box in 2020, 2022, and probably will do so again in 2024.
No AR, they are very much ILLEGALS gaming the system. One expects that if the current administration is reelected there will be a Executive Order shortly thereafter granting citizenship to all of them, which was their plan in the first place.
Biden and the Dems are absolutely responsible for
the debacle at the border.
Thank the Dems for the out of control disaster at the border.
Lmao, okay Keith. We’ll just ignore the disaster of a response by Republicans during Trump’s admin, which did nothing to deter the issue, and how Mike Johnson killed a bipartisan bill to address the issues. Republicans have disastrous economic and immigration policy track records and there is zero way around that fact. Immigration reform was last carried out by…guess who…REPUBLICANS(!) during the Reagan Admin.
Once again, proving me right that MAGA conservatives are clueless. Completely devoid of understanding and context of historic policy. Laughable, really.
Sorry, Dom. You’re wrong. You don’t get to change legal definitions based on your feelings.
A.R.
Lol….Biden’s first day in office he reversed Trump’s Executive orders
regarding the border.
Do you remember the Democratic Presidential Debate of 2020 ??? Obviously NOT……..Every Dem on that stage raised their hands to give all illegals
coming over free education, housing, health care, and education.
That in itself was the incentive for massive illegal immigration.
LMAO A.R. Do you remember the migrants coming over wearing the
thank you Joe Biden shirts???
This utter disaster at the border was by design by Biden and his DEMwitts.
Immigration is lower under Biden than any other President before he made this order.
Fact.
Not true!!!
The numbers have set all time records
OMG; you don’t get to make up “facts.” Source? It was just in the Wall Street Journal today; Highest illegal border crossings EVER. Almost 2.5 million each in 22 & ’23, with over 1.7 million in ’21 and 1.5 million already this year to date. Facts must be hard for you BS.
He’s earned my vote. A truly great President.
Truly great, awesome, over excited that this man has laid a path for my children’s future! Love his lapse of memory while speaking too. Lol lol lol lol. Wake up, but you’re already woke! Lol lol lol
His memory may slip a bit from time to time, but he has the help of his Doctor wife, Jill and Ivy League educated son, Hunter, a Navy veteran.
IBJ, is there going to be a new photo opp with Saint Andre and AOC wearing white suits and collapsing?
The conspiracy-theorist MAGA weirdos are out strong today.
AR – General consumer basket costs are 20% higher end of 1st quarter this year compared to end of 2021 report. Not sure how you say “inflation is still a little high but prices have come down”. Also, estimated 6 million illegal entries under Biden’s term. How is this acceptable for any President, especially since a majority have been released with their cases closed with no requirement to track?
A.R.
You are a typical leftwinger, with feelings over facts.
Evidently you missed Milton Friedman’s statement. That a welfare state
with open borders can not survive.
The disaster at the border was by Democrats design