Kanother policy area was shaken up by the congressional elections like migration policy. American President Joe Biden has made a virtual 180-degree turn towards a more restrictive asylum policy. But that doesn’t stop Republicans from continuing to push the government in front of them.
James Comer, the new House Audit Committee chairman, is one of the key Republicans in the new Congress. His committee controls the inquisition against the Democrats – and the focus is on the migration crisis. For example, Comer recently asked the top border guards of the nine sections on the southern border to make statements. Republicans say the government has meanwhile tried to prevent questioning of some border guards – particularly those in Texas and Arizona, where the migration crisis escalated last summer. Comer fought back.
The government is currently preparing against an impending increase in border crossings: the health emergency will expire in mid-May. Then the pandemic-related entry restrictions – introduced under Donald Trump – will also fall under “Title 42”. The provision in the federal statute allowed border authorities to expel more than two million migrants, including asylum seekers, since March 2020.
Asylum seekers should make an appointment in advance
Last week, the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice released an ordinance criminalizing – temporarily – crossing the border illegally. So far, federal law has guaranteed refugees the right to apply for asylum in America, regardless of how they got into the country. Instead, it should now be made easier for asylum seekers to make an appointment at a border protection station to submit their application. There they would then have to prove that their asylum application was rejected in Mexico or another transit country. Should the border official come to the conclusion that the applicant is exposed to a “credible risk”, a formal asylum procedure would begin, which would ultimately be decided by an administrative court. There are currently more than 1.6 million pending cases. In 2022 alone, 750,000 new cases were added.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the move, saying it has been shown time and time again that when people are offered a safe, orderly, and legal path to the United States, they are less likely to risk their lives by putting themselves in the hands of ruthless smugglers and embarked on a perilous journey. The White House hopes that the change in the legal situation, which will initially apply for two years, will keep migration policy out of the 2024 election campaign. But the Republicans are sticking to examining the background to the crisis on the southern border, which intensified after Biden took office, in Congress – about-face or not.
Tough negotiations with Mexico
At the beginning of 2021, the President not only immediately stopped the further construction of Trump’s border wall, but also the “Remain-in-Mexico” policy. In early 2019, the Trump administration ordered migrants to remain in Mexico until their asylum process began. After tough negotiations with Washington, the Mexican government agreed to take in migrants from Central American countries of origin and to better protect its own southern border. After the outbreak of the Corona crisis, Trump then used the pandemic to completely prevent border crossings according to health protection regulations.
After taking office, Biden left the “Title 42” provision in place, but made exceptions – for Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans. The background was that Washington has either no or difficult diplomatic relations with these countries. When the number of border crossings rose to almost 200,000 a month before the congressional elections last fall, mainly because of refugees from these countries, and the Republicans sounded the alarm, the Biden government stepped in. The Department of Homeland Security announced it would replace the Title 42 exception with a quota system. As a result, the number of refugees fell significantly.
The White House wants it to stay that way. There is a public consultation phase of 30 days for the ordinance procedure. Homeland Security Minister Mayorkas is attacked from two sides. Parts of the Republican faction in the House of Representatives want to initiate impeachment proceedings against him because of the border policy that has since ended. They claim that Mayorkas lied when he said the border was safe. And the left wing of the Democrats around Pramila Jayapal expresses “deep disappointment” with the new initiative. Not good conditions for Biden to keep migration policy out of the next election campaign.
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