Fatshimetry —
The Biden administration’s migration policy is taking a radical turn with the use of an authority to deny access to asylum for migrants who illegally cross the border between the United States and Mexico. The move marks a significant attempt by President Joe Biden to tackle head-on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities.
The announcement of this dramatic executive action was made by Biden on Tuesday afternoon at the White House, in an attempt to use executive power to act on the situation at the border after an earlier bipartisan measure failed during this year. The action represents the Biden administration’s most dramatic move regarding the U.S. southern border, as Biden attempts to gain the upper hand on the immigration issue just weeks before the first presidential debate, using same authority that former President Donald Trump attempted to use while in office.
The White House announced that the action would take effect at midnight.
During a speech at the White House, Biden said congressional Republicans who blocked a bipartisan border deal left him with no choice but to take executive action.
“I’m overriding Republican obstruction and using the executive authorities I have as president to do what I can on my own to deal with the border,” Biden said.
This new executive action prohibits migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum, breaking with a protocol in place for decades, once a daily threshold is reached. Unless they meet certain exemptions, migrants will be sent back to Mexico or their country of origin.
Border officials encountered about 3,500 migrants crossing the border illegally on Monday, according to a Homeland Security official, exceeding the threshold needed for the executive action to take effect.
Homeland Security officials are currently stopping nearly 4,000 migrants a day at the U.S.-Mexico southern border, a slight lull from record numbers late last year. The flow of people crossing the U.S. southern border is an ongoing concern for the Biden administration, as officials battle record migration across the Western Hemisphere.
This measure could be activated and deactivated. Administration officials told reporters Tuesday that it would be lifted when the average daily number of encounters fell below 1,500 between ports of entry.
Unaccompanied children, victims of a serious form of human trafficking, those presenting an acute medical emergency or an imminent and extreme threat to life and safety, among other specific exemptions, are excluded. Migrants can also still request an appointment through Customs and Border Protection’s mobile app, known as CBP One, to submit their asylum application at a port of entry.
Biden and his administration have made it clear that they would have preferred to have bipartisan legislation to sign that would have addressed the crisis at the border.
“Frankly, I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that’s the only way to truly fix the system as it is today, which is broken. Hire more law enforcement officers Border Patrol, more asylum agents, more judges But the Republicans gave me no choice,” Biden said during his speech from the East Room of the White House.
Critics strongly denounced the measure, comparing it to measures taken under the Trump administration. As a candidate, Biden criticized the Trump administration for its policies deemed “inhumane” at the border. On a call with reporters Tuesday to outline the new action, an official defended the measures as distinct from Trump’s, while acknowledging that they are prepared for legal challenges, “frankly, on both sides of the spectrum policy”.
“The Trump administration has attacked nearly every aspect of the immigration system, and has done so in a shameful and inhumane way,” one official said Tuesday. “The action will not ban people based on their religion, it will not separate children from their mothers. There are also narrow humanitarian exceptions to the asylum ban, including for those facing a acute medical emergency or an imminent and extreme threat to their life or safety – the Trump administration’s actions did not include these exceptions.”
The president responded to criticism from progressives and others who compared the move to actions taken under Trump.
“For those who say the measures I have taken are too strict, I say be patient, because America’s patience is running out. Doing nothing is not an option. We must take action We must act in accordance with our law and our values Our values as Americans I am taking these steps today, not to deny who we are as Americans, but to ensure that. we are preserving what we are for future generations,” he said.
Biden also directly rejected the former president.
“I will never demonize immigrants, I will not.”