As President Donald J. Trump sought ways to close the southern border in 2018, he discovered a 73-word provision in asylum law that he said gave him “magic powers” to keep immigrants out of the United States.
President Biden adopted the same provision Tuesday when he took executive action to temporarily close the border to asylum seekers, ending a long-standing guarantee that anyone who sets foot on U.S. soil has the right to seek protection in the United States.
“The simple truth is that there is a global immigration crisis,” Biden said in a speech at the White House. “If the United States cannot secure its borders, there is no limit to the number of people who will attempt to immigrate.” Come this way.”
Biden’s announcement is a surprising reversal for a president and a party that has argued for years that the United States is a nation of immigrants. President Barack Obama issued a sweeping executive order on immigration to boost his chances of re-election in 2012. This allowed millions of immigrants to remain in the United States legally.
Twelve years later, with the number of people crossing the border illegally at an all-time high, the next Democratic president took an entirely different tack. Critics say Biden is adopting the tactics of President Trump and his immigration czar, Stephen Miller, to end asylum, even using the same provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that Trump cited to justify a travel ban on Muslim-majority countries. They say there is.
“Stephen Miller and Donald Trump practiced fear-based politics on immigration, and the Biden White House decided to buy in,” said Heidi Altman, policy director at the National Immigrant Justice Center. She called it a “dangerous change” that “will take our country against its core values and commitments.”
For years, Democrats like Mr. Biden and his allies have attacked Mr. Trump for his obsession with closing the border. Kamala Harris criticized him in 2017, saying “we cannot turn our backs on millions of refugees.” In 2018, Democratic lawmakers accused President Trump of stoking the “fires of intolerance” by halting his asylum. In 2020, Hakeem Jeffries, currently the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, called President Trump a “xenophobe.” in. Chef.”
But immigration policy has changed as record numbers of immigrants spread beyond border communities to cities even further afield. Mr. Biden adjusted accordingly. Sensing that Americans want stronger policies, the president supported the restrictions in a bipartisan bill this year. As President Trump called on Republicans to repeal the law, President Biden and his aides felt pressured to find another way.
The president rallied many Democrats when he announced this approach just hours before leaving Washington for a five-day visit to Paris for D-Day celebrations. Mr. Biden is accusing Republicans of blocking broader efforts to overhaul the immigration system, and many mayors and governors in his party say the time has finally come to do something to address the surge in immigration into their cities.
The proclamation signed by President Biden on Tuesday declared that asylum rights should be suspended whenever the number of immigrants exceeds a certain number. He then set a low enough bar of 2,500 average daily migrants for the suspension to go into effect immediately, starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
In fact, the global migration wave caused by climate change, economic instability and political violence around the world has exceeded that mark almost every day for almost a year. And although it is lower than the peak of 10,000 migrants in December last year, it is still much higher than the average of about 1,000 migrants per day 10 years ago. The restrictions would not apply to minors crossing the border alone and to small numbers of people who legitimately fear torture or persecution in their home countries, officials said.
Mr. Biden and those running his campaign are confident that voters will reward the president for a new, aggressive effort to limit the number of people entering the country illegally. They hope the move will ease pressure on Democratic-led cities, including New York and Denver, which are struggling to provide food and housing for immigrants.
And they believe the move will give Mr. Biden a powerful counterattack by Mr. Trump and Republicans who have long accused Democrats of being weak on the border.
But the move is also sure to ignite some of Mr. Biden’s supporters, especially those on the left who have already expressed dissatisfaction with the president on issues as diverse as student loan debt and climate change.
President Biden and his aides are outraged by accusations that they are following in President Trump’s footsteps.
The president correctly pointed out that he has sidelined some of his predecessor’s extreme policies, such as separating children from their parents at the border, to send a message to immigrants that they should not come to the United States. On his first day in office, Mr. Biden proposed immigration reform that would provide a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants. Republicans refused to consider this proposal.
“I will never demonize immigrants,” Biden said Tuesday at the White House. “I would never refer to immigrants as polluting the blood of the nation. And furthermore, we will never separate children from their families at the border. “I will not ban people from this country because of their religious beliefs.”
But the new measures are a strong crackdown.
One of the measures included in Tuesday’s presidential proclamation would bar immigrants caught trying to enter the country illegally while the president’s asylum ban is in effect from entering the United States, even through legal channels, for five years. Liberals have fought such an extended ban for decades.
Mr. Biden reached the same conclusion as Mr. Trump and Mr. Miller about the source of his legal authority to take executive action to stop immigration.
Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act states: “Whenever the President determines that the entry of an alien or alien into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may, by declaration: and may suspend the entry of any alien, or of any class of alien, immigrant or non-immigrant, for such period as he may deem necessary, or impose such restrictions as he may deem appropriate upon the entry of any alien.”
Legal scholars have debated the meaning of this word for years. When the Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s travel ban, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that the provision “inspires deference to the president in every detail.” The American Civil Liberties Union said the court’s ruling in the case was wrong and “one of the greatest failures, reminiscent of the decision to permit the discriminatory incarceration of Japanese Americans.”
In February, Miller said Trump should use the provision in a “muscular” way during his second term, calling it “part of an effort to build a fortress on the border and make sure no one can cross it.” even alittle.”
