The administration of President Joe Biden announced this Tuesday a harsh new immigration measure that will penalize all asylum seekers who enter the United States illegally or have not requested this protection in the transit countries through which they passed before reaching the border.
The measure could affect the thousands who daily attempt this route to reach the US, including many Colombians.
What is the measure?
The new rule proposed by the Democratic administration would “presume” “ineligibility” for asylum in both circumstances and suggests that migrants “take advantage of legal, safe, and orderly pathways to the United States, or seek asylum or other protection in the countries through which they travel, thus reducing dependence on human trafficking networks that exploit migrants.” migrants for economic gain”, says the text presented by the Department for Homeland Security (DHS).
Biden’s proposal would not take effect immediately as it will first enter its public consultation phase over the next 30 days. It is expected, in theory, that it will come into force as of May when the validity of the controversial Title 42, which allows the US to expel people without considering asylum requests under the protection of the health emergency that was decreed, should expire. in 2020 to prevent the spread of covid-19.
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Likewise, the administration warned that it is a temporary measure whose initial validity is two years and that it includes some exceptions. Among them, it will not apply to unaccompanied minors and not to those who can prove that they were denied asylum in one of the transit countries.
“To clarify, this was not our first or second preference. These are temporary measures that are taken out of necessity and it is Congress that has to approve a reform to regularize this problem,” an administration source told reporters.
The problem he is referring to is the record number of immigrants showing up at the border: Only last year there were more than 2 million, of which some 130,000 were Colombians. A crisis that is still in force in this 2023 since there are already almost a million in the first four months of the fiscal period (60,000 of them Colombians).
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It is Congress that has to approve a reform to regularize this problem
The Biden administration’s announcement represents the toughest anti-immigration move so far in his tenure and very similar to others advanced by his predecessor Donald Trump.
In fact, the former Republican president tried a similar measure during his government but it was stopped by the courts. In this case, similar lawsuits are expected against Biden’s measure.
Under US immigration law migrants fleeing persecution in their countries can apply for asylum regardless of how they arrived in the country and remain in their territory while the case is resolved.
If the new norm is sustained, that would no longer be viable and they would be forced to apply from their own countries or third nations.
At the same time, the administration is negotiating a new agreement with Mexico that would allow it to “express” deport citizens of other countries, like Colombia, whose asylum applications are denied for not having processed them correctly and under the new guidelines.
Biden’s decision, also seen as a political strategy to avoid criticism from Republicans over the border crisis, was also strongly questioned by members of his own party and sympathetic groups who see it as retrograde and draconian.
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Decades of Humanitarian Protections Enshrined in US Law
“This challenges decades of humanitarian protections enshrined in US law and international agreements, and flagrantly violates President Biden’s own campaign promises to restore asylum. Requiring that persecuted people first seek protection in countries that do not have asylum systems in operation is a ridiculous and potentially deadly proposition,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
The administration, however, rejects the comparisons with the Trump era and maintains that in parallel they have opened other paths so that migrants can request asylum but in an orderly manner.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
WEATHER CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON
On Twitter: @sergom68
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