Biden issues latest order on immigrants at the southern border

On June 4, 2024, the Biden administration issued a new immigration policy that would allow authorities to send back migrants caught crossing illegally at the southern border back to Mexico depending on the number of encounters on a given day. The official announcement says that "the Biden-Harris Administration took decisive new action to strengthen border security, announcing a series of measures that restrict asylum eligibility, and significantly increase the consequences for those who enter without authorization across the southern border. These extraordinary steps, which will be in effect during times when high levels of encounters exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences, will make noncitizens who enter across the southern border ineligible for asylum with certain exceptions, raise the standard that is used to screen for certain protection claims, and speed up our ability to quickly remove those who do not qualify for protection.”

There are exceptions to this rule. Specifically, it states that "during periods of high encounters, the Proclamation will apply across the southern border. Lawful permanent residents, unaccompanied children, victims of a severe form of trafficking, and other noncitizens with a valid visa or other lawful permission to enter the United States are excepted from the Proclamation. In addition, the suspension and limitation on entry and rule will not apply to noncitizens who use a Secretary-approved process—such as the CBP One mobile app—to enter the United States at a port of entry in a safe and orderly manner or pursue another lawful pathway. Noncitizens who cross the southern border and who are not excepted from the Proclamation will be ineligible for asylum unless exceptionally compelling circumstances exist, including if the noncitizen demonstrates that they or a member of their family with whom they are traveling are faced with an acute medical emergency; faced an imminent and extreme threat to life or safety, such as an imminent threat of rape, kidnapping, torture, or murder; or satisfied the definition of “victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons.”

As a consequence, "noncitizens who are subject to the rule’s limitation on asylum eligibility and who manifest or express a fear of return to their country or country of removal, express a fear of persecution or torture or an intention to apply for asylum, but do not establish a reasonable probability of persecution or torture in the country of removal will be promptly removed.

Those ordered removed will be subject to at least a five-year bar to reentry and potential criminal prosecution."

This presidential directive met a lot of criticisms from either side of the immigration debate. Progressives vowed to file a lawsuit preventing its implementation while conservatives take it to mean as just another political gimmick by the president as he seeks reelection. As I have said before, immigrants are always at the crosshairs whenever a presidential election is under way as immigration has always been a major bone of contention thrown by either side against the other.