Biden wants to bar migrants who enter US illegally from receiving asylum
President Joe Biden is utilizing executive actions to prohibit migrants who illegally enter the United States from receiving asylum when the border enforcement agencies are overwhelmed.
In a fact sheet Tuesday, the White House said the president approved “executive actions to bar migrants who cross our Southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.”
“These actions will be in effect when high levels of encounters at the Southern Border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences, as is the case today,” stated the fact sheet. “They will make it easier for immigration officers to remove those without a lawful basis to remain and reduce the burden on our Border Patrol agents.”
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According to the White House, Biden is “suspending entry of noncitizens who cross the Southern border into the United States unlawfully,” noting that the actions “will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border between ports of entry is low enough for America’s system to safely and effectively manage border operations.”
“These actions also include similar humanitarian exceptions to those included in the bipartisan border agreement announced in the Senate, including those for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking,” added the administration.
Former President Donald Trump issued a similar proclomation in 2018, which was blocked by an Obama-appointed federal judge who ruled the president doesn't have the power to "impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden."
Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced the executive actions in a statement on behalf of the Republican presidential candidate, claiming they will lead to “amnesty, not border security.”
“If Joe Biden truly wanted to shut down the border, he could do so with a swipe of the same pen, but he never will because he is controlled by radical left Democrats who seek to destroy America,” stated Leavitt.
“Biden's illegal migrants are ravaging our Nation and have caused a crime wave in every state, as proven this week by the Venezuelan illegal criminal who gunned down two brave NYPD officers. The border invasion and migrant crime will not stop until Crooked Joe Biden is deported from the White House.”
Global Refuge, a nonprofit refugee resettlement agency formerly known as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, released a statement expressing concern.
“We are deeply concerned about the legality of this interim final rule and the moral implications of turning away asylum-seeking families desperate for and deserving of protection,” stated Global Refuge President Krish O’Mara Vignarajah.
“Our fear is that such restrictions would ultimately deny protection to persecuted individuals and families based on increasingly arbitrary factors, and not on the actual merits of their claim. This represents a troubling departure from an approach that balances the carrot and stick in favor of hardline restrictions that have historically failed to bring order or fairness to our border.”
Vignarajah blamed Congress for failing to pass immigration reform legislation. She believes Biden’s plans are “wholly unsustainable dynamic.”
“Instead of focusing solely on administrative actions that curtail asylum rights, the Biden administration should look to implement a holistic policy to manage our southern border,” she added.
“Viable options include increasing legal pathways, such as guest worker and family reunification programs, encouraging more protection partnership work in the region, such as its Safe Mobility Offices, and cracking down on trafficking operations.”
According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, there have been record numbers of encounters between migrants seeking entry into the U.S. and border enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border, with more than 301,000 incidents in December alone.
In March, the Pew Research Center released a report finding that 45% of respondents believed that the situation at the border was a "crisis," while 32% considered it a "major problem," 17% said it was "a minor problem" and 4% thought that it was "not a problem."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement that the executive actions are "unserious and will do nothing to secure America’s borders."
"In fact, it sanctions up to 2,499 illegal aliens per day — meaning nearly 1 million per year — crossing the border between ports of entry," Jordan said in a statement. "That number does not even include all of the illegal aliens who are subject to the rule’s myriad exceptions. In addition, it continues the wholesale abuses of law that Joe Biden uses to let millions more illegal aliens in through our ports of entry."
Jordan said he is not surprised to see Biden take this step given the unpopularity of his administration's handling of the border influx. The Real Clear Politics average of polling measuring public approval of Biden's handling of immigration shows that the president is 29.4% below water.
"For three-and-a-half years, Americans have watched Joe Biden and his DHS Secretary allow millions of unvetted illegal aliens into our country and into our communities. In fact, he’s on track to allow nearly 12 million illegal aliens into the U.S. by the end of his term," Jordan said. "The President’s poll numbers are in the tank — especially on immigration — and later this month he is scheduled to debate President Trump — the strongest border security President in the history of the United States. So, it’s no surprise that Joe Biden is trying to fool the American public into thinking he cares about the country’s borders."
