Biden limits asylum seekers at the border
What happened
Anticipating a surge of migrants at the southern border, the Biden administration announced new rules last week that will bar most migrants who show up there from claiming asylum. Nearly everyone who fails to first seek asylum in another country en route to the U.S., or who does not preregister with border authorities via mobile app before showing up, will be immediately turned away. The rules will replace Title 42, the pandemic measure that the Trump administration instituted to justify the immediate expulsion of migrants at the border. That measure is set to expire on May 11, and Biden officials feared that after that, attempted migrant crossings could spike to 13,000 a day. The new rules supplement an earlier White House initiative that has already cut migration significantly. That measure, implemented in January, bars entry to all migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba who show up unannounced but grants them a chance at asylum if they apply from abroad. Since it was adopted, the number of migrants overall plummeted 40 percent.
Republicans have blamed Biden for the nearly 2.4 million attempted border crossings in the 2022 fiscal year, and just 28 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the issue. White House officials countered that Congress had failed to pass immigration reform while Republican-led states had sued to stop Biden’s executive actions. “We don’t see anybody else providing any other solutions,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. She called the latest rule change “a way to move forward.”
What the columnists said
Biden is reviving “some of his predecessor’s most reprehensible, least humane border policies,” said Catherine Rampell in The Washington Post. It’s clear he wants to forestall Republican criticism, as the new ban is strikingly similar to the harsh Trump administration rules that the courts shot down, with only a few exceptions for migrants in immediate danger. But Republicans will still baselessly claim that Biden wants open borders, so this policy amounts to “sacrificing principles” for no political gain.
Frankly, many of Biden’s fellow Democrats do seem to favor “no security at all at the southern border,” said Zachary Faria in the Washington Examiner. Even this “half-hearted half-measure” of Biden’s fills them with outrage. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), for example, has deemed it “a racist policy,” while members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have released a statement of disapproval. Don’t they realize that border towns, and even some Northern cities, “are being overwhelmed”?
In fact, migrant numbers are plunging, likely thanks to Biden’s new policies, said Bloomberg in an editorial. Between December and January, migrant encounters at U.S. ports of entry dropped from 221,675 to 128,410—“the lowest figure in two years.” Early February estimates suggest “continued declines.” The administration’s attempts to restore order without slamming the door in migrants’ faces may have been met with performative scorn from both Left and Right, but they deserve “a fair chance to work.”