I think he should visit the L&J Cafe for lunch
President Biden announced new immigration restrictions Thursday, including the expansion of programs to remove people quickly without letting them seek asylum, in an attempt to address one of his administration’s most politically vulnerable issues at a time when the nation’s attention is focused on Republican disarray in the House.
The measures, which reflect a political shift to the center for Biden, will broaden his authority to grant legal entry to tens of thousands of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians into the country each month. But migrants from those countries who attempt to enter the United States without authorization will risk rapid expulsion to Mexico, as the administration plans to expand its use of a pandemic-era public health immigration policy known at Title 42.
Biden’s new policies represent a move to the center on an issue that has loomed over the first two years of his administration. The changes are likely to draw challenges from immigration advocacy groups, because U.S. law says that anyone can apply for asylum if they set foot on U.S. soil. But officials say people are misusing those laws to cross the border to work, which is not grounds for humanitarian protection.
The White House said the measures “will expand and expedite legal pathways for orderly migration and result in new consequences for those who fail to use those legal pathways.”
“The actions we are announcing today will make things better, but will not fix the border problem completely,” Biden said in a speech from the White House. “Until Congress has acted, I can act where I have legal capacity to do so.”
Biden, who has said he will seek reelection in 2024, is contending with the political and operational fallout of two consecutive years of record numbers of migrants taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border, in part because of his more welcoming policies.
A few minutes after the president finished speaking, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — the son of Cuban refugees — told reporters the Biden administration is preparing additional measures to penalize asylum seekers who enter illegally instead of applying through CBP One, a government mobile app.
The administration’s solution is legally thorny and likely to anger immigration advocates and even some Democrats — and will probably do little to silence Biden’s Republican critics.
Biden announced that he will stop in El Paso on Sunday, ahead of a trip to Mexico City next week for a regional summit. On Wednesday, Biden told reporters he wanted to see “peace and security” at the border and is “going to see what’s going on.”
It will be his first trip to the border as president and will probably attract international attention and be politically fraught. But the disarray among Republican members of the House has provided some political cover for the White House.
Still, Biden acknowledged the political calculus on Thursday. “It’s clear that immigration is a political issue that extreme Republicans are always going to run on,” he said. “If the most extreme Republicans continue to demagogue this issue, I’m left with only one choice: to act on my own.”
But a member of the president’s own party was among the first to criticize his plan.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who along with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has pushed the Biden administration for months to end Title 42, criticized the administration’s plan, saying it goes too far in restricting migrants’ access to the border.
“The Biden Administration’s decision to expand Title 42, a disastrous and inhumane relic of the Trump Administration’s racist immigration agenda, is an affront to restoring rule of law at the border,” Menendez said in a statement. “Ultimately, this use of the parole authority is merely an attempt to replace our asylum laws, and thousands of asylum seekers waiting to present their cases will be hurt as a result.”
Biden’s plan would expel more migrants from Cuba and the other three countries each month under Title 42 than he did in all of last year, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Fewer than 22,000 of the 626,410 migrants apprehended from those countries last fiscal year were expelled.
President Biden announced new immigration restrictions Thursday, including the expansion of programs to remove people quickly without letting them seek asylum, in an attempt to address one of his administration’s most politically vulnerable issues at a time when the nation’s attention is focused on Republican disarray in the House.
The measures, which reflect a political shift to the center for Biden, will broaden his authority to grant legal entry to tens of thousands of Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Haitians into the country each month. But migrants from those countries who attempt to enter the United States without authorization will risk rapid expulsion to Mexico, as the administration plans to expand its use of a pandemic-era public health immigration policy known at Title 42.
Biden’s new policies represent a move to the center on an issue that has loomed over the first two years of his administration. The changes are likely to draw challenges from immigration advocacy groups, because U.S. law says that anyone can apply for asylum if they set foot on U.S. soil. But officials say people are misusing those laws to cross the border to work, which is not grounds for humanitarian protection.
The White House said the measures “will expand and expedite legal pathways for orderly migration and result in new consequences for those who fail to use those legal pathways.”
“The actions we are announcing today will make things better, but will not fix the border problem completely,” Biden said in a speech from the White House. “Until Congress has acted, I can act where I have legal capacity to do so.”
Biden, who has said he will seek reelection in 2024, is contending with the political and operational fallout of two consecutive years of record numbers of migrants taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border, in part because of his more welcoming policies.
A few minutes after the president finished speaking, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — the son of Cuban refugees — told reporters the Biden administration is preparing additional measures to penalize asylum seekers who enter illegally instead of applying through CBP One, a government mobile app.
The administration’s solution is legally thorny and likely to anger immigration advocates and even some Democrats — and will probably do little to silence Biden’s Republican critics.
Biden announced that he will stop in El Paso on Sunday, ahead of a trip to Mexico City next week for a regional summit. On Wednesday, Biden told reporters he wanted to see “peace and security” at the border and is “going to see what’s going on.”
It will be his first trip to the border as president and will probably attract international attention and be politically fraught. But the disarray among Republican members of the House has provided some political cover for the White House.
Still, Biden acknowledged the political calculus on Thursday. “It’s clear that immigration is a political issue that extreme Republicans are always going to run on,” he said. “If the most extreme Republicans continue to demagogue this issue, I’m left with only one choice: to act on my own.”
But a member of the president’s own party was among the first to criticize his plan.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who along with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has pushed the Biden administration for months to end Title 42, criticized the administration’s plan, saying it goes too far in restricting migrants’ access to the border.
“The Biden Administration’s decision to expand Title 42, a disastrous and inhumane relic of the Trump Administration’s racist immigration agenda, is an affront to restoring rule of law at the border,” Menendez said in a statement. “Ultimately, this use of the parole authority is merely an attempt to replace our asylum laws, and thousands of asylum seekers waiting to present their cases will be hurt as a result.”
Biden’s plan would expel more migrants from Cuba and the other three countries each month under Title 42 than he did in all of last year, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Fewer than 22,000 of the 626,410 migrants apprehended from those countries last fiscal year were expelled.
