The growing migration flows are forcing American President Joe Biden to act. With new programs he is trying to fight illegal immigration with carrots and sticks.
Migrants wait near the border fence in El Paso in December 2022.
As President, Democrat Joe Biden cannot please anyone on the issue of migration. In order to mobilize his left base in the election campaign more than two years ago, he promised a “safe, orderly and humane” immigration practice. In doing so, he also nurtured the hopes of many people in Latin America who were making their way north. In January 2021, border guards caught around 78,000 migrants in the Southwest of the USA, and in January 2022 it was around 155,000. In the past fiscal year, the total number of migrants rose from 1.7 to 2.4 million.
Given this development, Biden seemed intent on keeping the issue out of the headlines as much as possible. After taking office, he waited two years until he will visit the Mexican border near El Paso on Sunday for the first time. At the same time, his government tried to dampen the hopes awakened in Latin America. On her trip abroad to Guatemala in June 2021 said Vice President Kamala Harris: “Does not come. The United States continues to enforce its laws and secure its borders.” When thousands of Haitians crossed the Rio Grande in September of that year, Washington cracked down. Many of them were taken to their homeland by plane deported.
Legal path with hurdles
While the administration has publicly worked to end controversial Trump-era measures, privately it did not seem unhappy that courts were upholding them. At the end of December, the Supreme Court extended the application pending a final judgement of the so-called Title 42. This provision allowed border guards to immediately return migrants and those seeking protection from certain countries to Mexico during the coronavirus pandemic to prevent the disease from spreading further. Over 2.5 million foreign nationals have been turned away in this way since March 2020.
However, Title 42 does not prevent migrants from crossing the border a second, third or fourth time to seek asylum. about a third of people apprehended at the border had previously attempted to enter the United States at least once.
Rapid deportation to Mexico without prosecution results in more migrants crossing the Rio Grande again and again. Since the pandemic is now over, courts are unlikely to be able to maintain Title 42 for much longer. Before his trip to El Paso, Biden therefore announced new initiatives intended to alleviate the problem with a little carrot and stick.
According to this, the USA wants to take in 30,000 people from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti every month in the future and grant them a two-year work permit. However, applications must be made outside of the United States. “Stay where you are and apply legally from there,” Biden said. The applicants need a “sponsor” in the USA, have to be vaccinated and have to go through a safety check. Citizens from these countries who illegally cross the border from Mexico will be turned back immediately.
Under pressure from left and right
Illegal immigration from these four countries has increased particularly sharply in recent months. Around 40 percent of people apprehended at the Mexican border are from there. For Venezuelans, the program has been in place since October. According to the authorities, it is having an effect. The number of Venezuelans illegally crossing the border into Mexico has fallen by 90 percent, explained Alejandro Mayorkasthe Secretary of State for Homeland Security, on Thursday.
In addition, migrants should be able to make an appointment at a border crossing via an app on their smartphone in order to apply for asylum. Mayorkas said that those who have tried to circumvent legal immigration opportunities or who have not applied for protection in third countries on their way to the United States are suspected of not having a right to asylum. His agency is also increasing the number of expedited expulsions for people who don’t fall under Title 42.
The announcements led to an outcry from human rights activists and democratic MPs. Those in need of protection who did not meet the requirements of the program would be excluded, criticized such as Senator Bob Menendez. It is an attempt to undermine the existing right of asylum. The new rules are a humanitarian disgrace, said Eleanor Acer of Human Rights First.
Biden himself said on Thursday: “What we are announcing today will improve things, but it will not completely solve the problem at the border.” It’s probably just a drop in the bucket. But in view of a possible re-election in 2024, Biden could no longer ignore the situation at the border. Whoever his Republican opponent will be, he is likely to raise the issue of increased migration flows. Biden needs to show he’s doing something about it.