The White House on Thursday sought to soothe concerns that throngs of desperate migrants — like those seen this week along the 3,100-kilometer border separating the United States from Mexico — could become the norm after the lifting of the pandemic-related migrant expulsion policy known as Title 42.
“Our efforts, within the constraints of our broken immigration system, are focused on ensuring that the process is safe, orderly and humane, all while protecting our dedicated workforce and our communities,” said Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, at the White House.
The pandemic-related migrant expulsion policy expires at midnight Thursday, and officials have seen a border surge as migrants try to enter before a new rule goes into effect. After midnight, migrants who cross between ports of entry will quickly be removed and ineligible for asylum, except in some cases. Those who make an appointment through the CBPOne app will still be able to seek asylum protection.
As night gave way to dawn on Thursday in El Paso, Texas, U.S. National Guard members escorted families laden with backpacks and young children back into Mexico through a gap in the razor-wire barrier.
A few dozen young men stood staring at uniformed Border Patrol and National Guard members across the border from Matamoros, Mexico, separated only by bales of concertina wire.
In Tijuana, groups huddled under blue tarpaulins as the hot sun beat down and a tall palisade border fence loomed over them.
And in Brownsville, a Texas town along the Rio Grande, migrants gathered in clumps on the riverbank, watching the rushing water. The river is about 2.4 meters deep at that point, according to official data. On the other side, migrant families lined up at crowded shelters for food and medical assistance.
At the White House, Mayorkas sought to calm critics who say the administration’s policy is confusing, those who say the new policy is inhumane, and those who say the new policy is not strict enough.
He noted that the federal government has sent 24,000 Border Patrol officers and an additional 1,500 active-duty troops to the southern border. The latter step has drawn criticism from within Biden’s own party, with Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey saying, “The Biden administration’s militarization of the border is unacceptable.”
Mayorkas said one thing is clear: “If anyone arrives at our southern border after midnight tonight, they will be presumed ineligible for asylum and subject to steep consequences for unlawful entry, including a minimum five-year ban on reentry and potential criminal prosecution,” he said.
And he emphasized one thing that everyone in Washington does seem to agree on: The U.S. immigration system is a mess.
“We want to fix a system that has been broken for decades,” he said.
Whom to blame — and how to fix it — is what Washington cannot decide.
“I asked the Congress for a lot more money for the Border Patrol,” Biden said Wednesday. “They didn’t do it. They made it harder.”
Biden’s opponents want to see tighter rules.
“Biden border policies jeopardize national security and endanger all American families everywhere of a terrorist attack by illegal aliens,” said Republican Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina on the floor of Congress on Thursday.
And immigration advocates say Biden’s system is too tough.
“This rule will only jeopardize the lives of people seeking safety and create even more chaos and suffering at our southern border,” said Melissa Crow, director for litigation at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, during a briefing with journalists. “And as the administration well knows, it’s also blatantly illegal. Essentially, the new rule combines and repackages two Trump-era asylum bans that President Biden himself denounced on the campaign trail, and both of which were struck down as unlawful in federal court.”
The administration disagrees.
“This president has led the unprecedented expansion of lawful pathways,” Mayorkas said when asked whether this was a rerun of Trump policies. “We stand markedly different than the prior administration.”
As the sun rises along the border on Friday, migrants will be subject to the new rules. Meanwhile, this debate rages in Washington.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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