America president Joe Biden Plans were unveiled Tuesday to immediately impose significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. boundary The White House is trying to eliminate migrant This is a political liability ahead of the November election.
The White House detailed a much-anticipated presidential proclamation signed by Biden that would bar asylum to migrants when U.S. officials deem the southern border overwhelmed. The Democratic president has been considering the unilateral move for months, particularly after a bipartisan border security deal collapsed in Congress, which most Republicans rejected at the behest of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The order will take effect when the number of border contacts between ports of entry reaches 2,500 people per day, according to senior administration officials. That means Biden's order should take effect immediately because that number is higher than the current daily average. The restrictions will last until the number of daily contacts between ports of entry falls below the seven-day average of 1,500 or less for two weeks. The Associated Press first reported the data on Monday.
Once the order goes into effect, immigrants who arrive at the border and do not express fear of returning to their home countries will be immediately expelled from the United States, possibly within days or even hours. They will face penalties, including a five-year ban from reentering the United States and possible criminal prosecution.
In the meantime, anyone who expresses such fear or an intent to seek asylum will be vetted by U.S. asylum officials, but the vetting standards will be higher than they are currently. If they pass, they could seek more limited humanitarian protections, including under the United Nations Convention against Torture.
Biden’s order was detailed by four senior administration officials who insisted on anonymity to describe the effort to reporters. The directive comes as the number of migrants encountered at the border has continued to decline since December, but senior administration officials have nonetheless defended the order, saying the numbers are still too high and could surge during better weather, when encounters typically increase.
Yet many questions and complications remain about how to implement Biden’s new directive.
Emails needed on the day
Top news from Canada and around the world.
For example, the Biden administration has already reached a deal with Mexico, whereby Mexico has agreed to take in up to 30,000 citizens from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela each month as long as they have been denied entry to the U.S., and senior administration officials have said that agreement will continue. But it is unclear what would happen to citizens of other countries who are denied entry under Biden's directive.
Senior officials also acknowledged that the administration's goal of quickly deporting immigrants has been complicated by a lack of funding from Congress. The administration also faces certain legal limits on how it can detain immigrant families, though it has said it will continue to abide by those obligations.
The legal authority Biden invoked comes from Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the president to restrict the entry of certain immigrants if he deems them “detrimental” to the national interest. While prominent legal groups have threatened to sue the administration over the directive, senior officials have expressed confidence they can enforce Biden’s order.
Senior administration officials insist Biden's proposal is a stark departure from Trump's, who is relying on the same provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act as Biden, including his 2017 directive banning entry of citizens of Muslim-majority countries and his 2018 crackdown on asylum.
For example, Biden’s order lists several categories of immigrants who would receive exemptions for humanitarian reasons, including victims of human trafficking, unaccompanied minors and immigrants with serious medical emergencies.
The directive will also exempt migrants who arrive in what senior officials called an orderly fashion, including those who use the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's CBP One app to schedule appointments with border officials at ports of entry. The app was launched last year and is used by about 1,450 people a day.
The last time the average number of arrests for illegal border crossings fell below 2,500 per day was January 2021, the month Biden took office. The last time border encounters fell to 1,500 per day was July 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Congressional Republicans, who almost entirely rejected a bipartisan Senate border proposal earlier this year, dismissed Biden's order as little more than a “political stunt” aimed at demonstrating increased immigration enforcement ahead of the election.
“He's been trying to convince all of us that there's no way he can fix this mess,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference. “Remember, he created this mess.”
Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
