For months, President Joe Biden received backlash for the constant influx of immigrants at the southern U.S. border. In response, the president has announced strict enforcements to cap the number of asylum migrants.
Patrol officials now have the authority to close ports of entry after 2,500 migrants cross over. Once they hit this number, agents will cease all admissions for two weeks until entries are at or below 1,500 per day for seven days. For that duration, those seeking asylum and refuge will be turned away.
“I would have preferred to address this issue through bipartisan legislation, because that’s the only way to actually get the kind of system we have now, that’s broken, fixed: to hire more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more judges,” Biden said in official remarks on June 4.
Earlier this year, Biden adamantly advocated in favor of the bipartisan Senate bill that would have allotted an additional $20 billion in funding for border security; 4,300 asylum officers to review cases day to day; and more than 1,500 new Customs and Border Protection personnel. However, bipartisan bills aimed at bolstering border security have failed to pass with lawmakers twice.
Biden’s proclamation on June 4 is a stark pivot from the original plan of action, and now deters those who are most vulnerable from seeking safety in America.
“This action will help us to gain control of our border, restore order to the process,” Biden said. “This ban will remain in place until the number of people trying to enter illegally is reduced to a level that our system can effectively manage.”
However, statistics from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol show numbers at southern ports of entry as significantly lower than in the past. In April, the U.S. Border Patrol recorded 128,900 encounters between ports of entry along the southwest border—6% lower than the previous month and 30% lower than this time last year.
“We have executed the largest surge of removals and disruptive activities against human smuggling networks in the past decade,” said Troy A. Miller, senior official performing the duties of the commissioner. “As a result of this increased enforcement, southwest border encounters have not increased, bucking previous trends. We will remain vigilant to continually shifting migration patterns. We are still experiencing challenges along the borders and the nation’s immigration system is not appropriately resourced to handle them.”
According to their reports, the majority of all individuals encountered at the southwest border over the past three years have been removed, returned, or expelled. Total removals and returns since mid-May exceed removals and returns in every full fiscal year since 2013.
International human rights advocates say the new policy is fundamentally flawed.
“President Biden’s action sets a dangerous international precedent as a first-of-its-kind numerical cap on asylum, limiting the number of people who can claim asylum in the U.S. and effectively shutting down the U.S.-Mexico border, using the same legal authority that the Trump administration used to implement the dangerous and xenophobic Muslim and African travel bans,” said Amy Fischer, Amnesty International USA’s director of refugee and migrant rights. “This executive action will not fix the problems plaguing the border, address the needs of big cities faced with high numbers of new arrivals, stop people from fleeing for their lives, nor…keep communities safe. It will only cause more chaos and cruelty, and inevitably, more torture, violence, and deaths of women, men, and children seeking safety in the U.S.”
Other organizations strongly agree. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), for example, has declared the policy illegal and has set forth plans to sue.
“We need solutions to address the challenges at the border, but the administration’s planned executive actions will put thousands of lives at risk,” said Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer at the ACLU. “They will not meet the needs at the border, nor will they fix our broken immigration system.”
Nonetheless, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Rep. Tom Suozzi, and mayors from cities heavily affected by the border crisis, such as Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio, Texas; Norma Sepulveda, Harlingen, Texas; and Ramiro Garza of Edinburg, Texas, among others, stood in support behind Biden during the public announcement. Many of them are eager to comply with Biden’s policy, which is now actively being enforced at the southern border.
“This will stem the flow, because otherwise, there is no end in sight,” Hochul said in an interview with Spectrum News. “This gives us the breathing room to manage the people we have, help them get the work permits.”
Suozzi and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) wrote a letter to Biden urging him to “restrict the entry of any “aliens” who would be “detrimental to the interests of the United States,” citing drug cartels as “guides” for migrants. In commenting to the Amsterdam News, Suozzi said the current caps in place for legal immigrants are adequate and can uphold families’ dreams of being reunited.
“Congress has to act to make this better, but this is a very positive step and they’ve vetted it very well in the White House,” Suozzi said. “We’ve been reassured that they thought it through as to how it can pass legally.”
The executive order also extends punishment to those helping immigrants cross the border unlawfully. Biden’s administration has claimed to revoke visas of CEOs and government officials who profit from migrants coming to the U.S. unlawfully, increase financial rewards for tips about human smuggling activities, and added 40 machines to detect fentanyl at the border. Biden said he will continue working with Mexican officials to curb illegal activity.
“For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say…‘be patient,’” Biden said. “Doing nothing is not an option. We have to act. We must act consistent with both our law and our values as Americans.”