Streamlined immigration policy sees success
LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Five years ago, Alexis Llanos and his family fled Venezuela for Colombia, escaping death threats and political persecution. The family then planned to make the dangerous and deadly journey north, through the Darien jungle leading through Panama, with hopes of eventually crossing illegally into the United States.
Their plans changed when a friend mentioned a new migration program from the U.S. government that would allow them to stay put while they pleaded for a chance to come legally. It worked. After a four-month process that included medical exams and interviews with the United Nations and the U.S., Llanos, his partner and their 7-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy arrived in Florida.
“It was a unique opportunity, a miracle that God prepared for me,” said Llanos, 27, during an interview with The Associated Press from his new home. “I feel blessed, grateful. … I did not want to take the risk. I would not have forgiven myself if something had happened to them because of me,” crossing the jungle.
The Llanos family is among the first migrants allowed into the U.S. under the Biden administration’s new “safe mobility offices,” set up in Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Ecuador beginning in the fall. The program is designed to streamline the U.S. refugee process so migrants don’t give up and pay smugglers to make the journey north, further straining the U.S.-Mexico border, which has seen record-high numbers of crossings.
So far, 3,000 refugees have arrived in the U.S., and 9,000 have been approved. But it’s a small number compared with what’s happening at the U.S.Mexico border, where there were more than 10,000 arrests for illegal crossing per day over several days in December alone. In cities including Chicago, New York and Denver, migrants who have no access to work permits sleep in police station foyers and in airports.
These are the scenes that dominate the early phase of the 2024 presidential campaign, with Republicans excoriating President Joe Biden and considering whether to impeach his Homeland Security secretary.
Republicans are also pushing the Democratic president to back more restrictive policies that would dramatically reduce asylum protections, among other things, and they believe they have leverage if he wants to see another infusion of tens of billions in aid to Ukraine.
The Biden administration has worked to crack down on illegal crossings but has also sought to broaden legal pathways through efforts like the safe mobility initiative, to provide alternatives for migrants in the hope they don’t journey north.