{"id":410724,"date":"2024-06-06T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=410724"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Biden-rolls-out-asylum-restrictions-to-help-gain-control-of-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Biden-rolls-out-asylum-restrictions-to-help-gain-control-of-border\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden rolls out asylum restrictions to help ‘gain control’ of border"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP)\u2014<\/strong>President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections.<\/p>\n

The long-anticipated presidential proclamation would bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. The Democratic president had contemplated unilateral action for months after the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at the behest of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.<\/p>\n

Biden said he preferred more lasting action via legislation but \u201cRepublicans have left me no choice.\u201d Instead, he said he was acting on his own to \u201cgain control of the border\u201d while also insisting that \u201cI believe immigration has always been the lifeblood of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump \u201ctold the Republicans … that he didn\u2019t want to fix the issue, he wanted to use it to attack me,\u201d Biden said. \u201cIt was a cynical, extremely cynical, political move and a complete disservice to the American people who are looking for us not to weaponize the border but to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, on the other hand, used his social media account to assail Biden again over immigration, saying the Democrat had \u201ctotally surrendered our Southern Border\u201d and his order was \u201call for show\u201d ahead of their June 27 presidential debate.<\/p>\n

The order will go into effect when the number of border encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500 per day, according to senior administration officials. That means Biden\u2019s order should go into effect immediately, because the daily averages are higher now. Average daily arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico were last below 2,500 in January 2021, the month Biden took office. The last time the border encounters dipped to 1,500 a day was in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

The restrictions would be in effect until two weeks after the daily encounter numbers are at or below 1,500 per day between ports of entry, under a seven-day average. Those figures were first reported by The Associated Press on Monday.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security said increased enforcement with Mexico since high-level bilateral meetings in late December has lowered illegal crossings but is \u201clikely to be less effective over time,\u201d creating a need for more action. \u201cSmuggling networks are adaptable, responding to changes put in place,\u201d the department said in a federal rule published Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The department predicts that arrests for illegal crossings may climb to a daily average as high as 6,700 from July through September.<\/p>\n

Once this order is in effect, migrants who arrive at the border but do not express fear of returning to their home countries will be subject to immediate removal from the United States, within a matter of days or even hours. Those migrants could face punishments that could include a five-year bar from reentering the U.S. or even criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, anyone who expresses that fear or an intention to seek asylum will be screened by a U.S. asylum officer but at a higher standard than currently used. If they pass the screening, they can pursue more limited forms of humanitarian protection, including the U.N. Convention Against Torture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re troubled to see this administration raise the bar on asylum seekers who are coming to our southern border and exercising a legal right,\u201d said Krish O\u2019Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge. \u201cCertainly no one wants to see migrants who may be coming to seek a better life or for economic opportunity game the asylum system, but we see in our clients and in other immigrants people who are fleeing the most dire of circumstances at a time of unprecedented global migration and believe that the U.S. is still a beacon of hope and refuge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.N.\u2019s refugee agency also expressed concern, saying the new measures will deny access to asylum for many who are in need of international protection. The agency said in a statement that it recognizes that the U.S. is facing challenges in dealing with the significant number of people arriving at its border, but nonetheless called on the United States \u201cto uphold its international obligations and urge the government to reconsider restrictions that undermine the fundamental right to seek asylum.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the border Tuesday, there were no visible signs of immediate impact.<\/p>\n

Iselande Peralta, a Haitian mother staying at a migrant shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, with her 3-year-old son, said the U.S. was within its rights to enforce new restrictions. She has been trying for 10 months to get an appointment through U.S. Customs and Border Protection\u2019s online app, called CBP One. Peralta, 26, wouldn\u2019t consider crossing illegally and considers CBP One her best option.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if I was crazy, I wouldn\u2019t cross the river. How would I do that with a child as young as him? I\u2019m willing to wait,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s directive is coming when the number of migrants encountered at the border have been on a consistent decline since December, but senior administration officials say the numbers are still too high and could spike in better weather, as is typical.<\/p>\n

Yet many questions and complications remain about how Biden\u2019s directive would be implemented.<\/p>\n

For instance, the administration already has an agreement with Mexico in which Mexico agrees to accept up to 30,000 citizens a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela once they are denied entry from the U.S., and senior administration officials say that will continue under this order. But it is unclear what happens to nationals of other countries who are denied under Biden\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n

Four senior administration officials, who insisted on anonymity to describe the effort to reporters, acknowledged that Biden\u2019s goal of deporting migrants quickly is complicated by insufficient funding from Congress to do so. The administration also faces certain legal constraints when it comes to detaining migrant families, and the administration said it would continue to abide by those obligations.<\/p>\n

The legal authority being invoked by Biden comes under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows a president to limit entries for certain migrants if their entry is deemed \u201cdetrimental\u201d to the national interest. Senior officials expressed confidence that they would be able to implement Biden\u2019s order, despite threats from prominent legal groups to file lawsuits over the directive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe intend to sue,\u201d Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who successfully argued similar legal challenges when Trump was president. \u201cA ban on asylum is illegal, just as it was when Trump unsuccessfully tried it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The senior administration officials insisted that Biden\u2019s proposal differs dramatically from that of Trump, who leaned on the same provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that Biden is using, including Trump\u2019s 2017 directive to bar citizens of Muslim-majority nations and his efforts in 2018 to clamp down on asylum.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s order outlines several groups of migrants who would be exempted due to humanitarian reasons, including victims of human trafficking, unaccompanied minors and those with severe medical emergencies.<\/p>\n

The directive would also exempt migrants who make appointments with border officials at ports of entry using the CBP One app. About 1,450 appointments are made a day using the app, which launched last year to allow migrants to make asylum claims.<\/p>\n

Immigration advocates worry that Biden\u2019s plan would only increase an already monthslong backlog of migrants waiting for an appointment through the app, especially when immigration authorities do not have an accompanying surge of funding.<\/p>\n

It could also be difficult for border officials to quickly remove migrants when many agents are already tasked with helping in shelters and other humanitarian tasks, said Jennie Murray, the president of the National Immigration Forum.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustoms and Border Protection cannot keep up with apprehensions as it is right now because they don\u2019t have enough personnel so it would cause more disorder,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Republicans dismissed Biden\u2019s order as nothing more than a \u201cpolitical stunt\u201d meant to show toughened immigration enforcement ahead of the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe tried to convince us all for all this time that there was no way he could possibly fix the mess,\u201d GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference. \u201cRemember that he engineered it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a call organized by Trump\u2019s campaign, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser in Trump\u2019s White House who orchestrated his most polarizing immigration policies, and Tom Homan, former acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Trump administration, said Biden\u2019s order essentially would allow 2,500 people into the country a day and legalize the illegal entry into the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason they\u2019re doing this is because of the election,\u201d Homan said. \u201cThey\u2019ve had three and a half years to take action and done nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said legislation would have been more effective, but \u201cRepublican intransigence has forced the president\u2019s hand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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