in April, Axios According to reports, President Joe Biden is planning to “issue an executive order that would significantly limit the number of asylum seekers who can cross the southern border” in an attempt to “stop illegal crossings.” The Biden administration announced sweeping asylum restrictions in early June, but the move sparked immediate backlash from immigration advocates and border hawks.
“The entry of any non-citizens across the southern border into the United States is hereby suspended and restricted,” Biden’s order said. When border clashes at ports of entry reached an average of 2,500 a day over seven days, immigrants were barred from seeking asylum unless they qualified Getting rare exceptions or requesting an appointment at the port of entry via the app (it’s a glitchy app with a cumbersome process). Restrictions will be lifted after 14 days after the average daily number of contacts between ports of entry falls below 1,500 over a seven-day period.
Border crossing numbers have declined recently, but for years they have not reached the levels required by Biden’s order to resume asylum processing. Like many of Biden’s actions on the border, the order satisfied essentially no one.
International Refugee Assistance Program said it and other restrictive measures were “a remarkable capitulation by the Biden administration to xenophobic politicians who thrive on fear-mongering and scapegoating immigrant communities.” Janet Murray, president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum, said the action was “just a Band-Aid, no action from Congress.” Several Democratic lawmakers have expressed similar concerns, and the American Civil Liberties Union has sued Biden over the order.
Restrictionists, meanwhile, criticized Biden’s intentions and timing. “It’s just window dressing,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said of the “weak” order. “Everyone knows that if he cared about the border issue, he would have done this long ago.” Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz claimed that the order “is about the Biden administration trying to provide itself with political cover before the presidential election.” “The executive order is still allowing thousands of illegal aliens to cross the border every day. This is ridiculous.”
This order will have very real negative consequences for immigrants. Border measures such as these push desperate migrants into more remote, dangerous and deadly crossing corridors or, for those who choose to wait for restrictions to be lifted, into tent cities along the border where they may be raped, raped, Torture or kidnapping.
Biden has adopted some effective policies at the border, including sponsorship programs that allow private citizens to welcome refugees and other immigrants. These measures have successfully reduced unauthorized immigration from eligible countries. That’s because they acknowledge a simple fact: cracking down on immigration will do nothing to meet their needs for safe immigration pathways and job opportunities.
The government’s asylum restrictions deny this fact and will have unintended consequences, potentially leading to chaos at the border and, most importantly, making no one happy.
