What's the significance of Biden's timing for border visit amid GOP House fight?
Princeton University political scientist Dr. Lauren Wright discusses the politics behind Kevin McCarthy's speaker fight after he was elected on the 15th ballot on 'Fox Report.'
President Biden just announced a plan to deal with the situation at the southwest border, which he attributes to "the broken immigration system."
Immigration reform has been needed for a very long time. It seems more likely that the "situation," which is a record-breaking number of illegal crossings, is due to things that have occurred during his presidency, such as his practice of releasing most of the illegal crossers who aren’t expelled under Title 42.
Also, the fact that ICE immigration arrests in the interior of the country fell to the lowest level in more than a decade in fiscal 2021, may also have been a factor. Illegal crossers generally are safe once they have reached the interior of the country.
Migrant families from Brazil pass through a gap in the border wall after crossing from Mexico to Yuma, Arizona, to seek asylum on June 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)
Excerpts from the Fact Sheet for his plan.
I'VE BEEN TO THE BORDER AND HERE IS MY MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT BIDEN
Expand the Venezuelan parole program. When there was a huge spike in the number of illegal crossers from Venezuela, Biden established a special parole program for Venezuelan asylum seekers. He is expanding this program to include asylum seekers from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti. He claims that most of the illegal crossers are from these four countries.
It will be available to up to 30,000 individuals per month from these countries who have passed background checks and have a sponsor in the United States who is willing to provide financial and other support.
A Border Patrol agent at station in McAllen, Texas. (Veronica G. Cardenas//File Photo)
The rest of the migrants from these countries will be subject to expulsion to Mexico, which has agreed to accept the return of up to 30,000 individuals per month from these countries.
Participants will be permitted to enter and remain in the United States with work authorization for a period of two years while they wait for an asylum hearing.
Increase the Use of expedited removal proceedings. Some migrants who attempt to enter the United States without valid entry documents will be removed from the United States without a hearing unless they establish a credible fear of persecution, which entitles them to an asylum hearing.
Increase refugee resettlement from the western hemisphere. Welcome up to 20,000 more refugees from Latin American and Caribbean countries during fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
Launch an online appointment portal for the CBP One program. Migrants in Mexico will be able to use the CBP One mobile application for scheduling an appointment to initiate a protection claim instead of traveling to a port of entry to make the appointment in person. The CBP One program was started during the Trump administration.
Expedite migrant processing. Homeland Security (DHS) and the Justice Department (DOJ) are surging asylum officers and immigration judges to the border to review asylum cases more quickly. This is expected to reduce processing times.
New regulation. DHS and DOJ will issue a proposed rule to provide that individuals who circumvent pathways to lawful migration and fail to seek protection in a country through which they travel on their way to the United States will be subject to a rebuttable presumption of asylum ineligibility.
Some of these measures may help to reduce illegal crossings, such as the expansion of Trump’s CBP one program and the increase in the use of expedited removal proceedings – if the mandatory detention requirement for such proceedings in is followed.
The expanded parole program, however, will only apply to migrants who have sponsors in the United States, and Mexico’s agreement to accept the return of 30,000 illegal crossers from these countries is inadequate. There were 2,214,652 illegal crossings in fiscal 2022.
Additional measures are needed, such as the following;
End the practice of releasing most of the illegal crossers the Border Patrol apprehends.
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End the last-in-first-out practice of adjudicating the asylum applications of newly arriving families before adjudicating the applications of families who are already here, such as the Dedicated Docket program.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, "Families who have recently arrived should not languish in a multi-year backlog." I agree. But the ones who are languishing in the multi-year backlog already deserve compassion too. The average wait for a hearing is 775 days and that is virtually certain to increase when Title 42 is terminated.
And increase refugee numbers worldwide instead of just in the Western Hemisphere to make it possible to send the asylum seekers currently being expelled under Title 42 to refugee centers near their own countries and return them to the United States as refugees if they meet the requirements for such status. The Republicans may be willing to fund such a program.
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Although migrants have a statutory right to apply for asylum, the president does not have to let them into the country. The Supreme Court has held that the president has authority to suspend the entry of aliens with the sole prerequisite that he thinks their entry "would be detrimental to the interests of the United States."
If effective steps aren’t taken, the administration won’t be able to handle the tsunami of illegal crossings that is going to occur when Title 42 is terminated.