It is a measure as concrete as it is symbolic. This Wednesday, June 5, since midnight, a decree prevents migrants who entered the American territory illegally from benefiting from the right of asylum when their number exceeds 2,500 per day over a period of seven consecutive days, which is the case today. today. This is a major tightening of Joe Biden’s migration policy, five months before the presidential election. Usually, anyone who sets foot on American soil has the right to seek refuge there.
The American president declared that these measures will make it possible to “regain control” of the border with Mexico, where more and more people fleeing poverty in Central or Latin America converge. They will also aim “to restore order to the process” of asylum applications, he added during a speech at the White House, and that they were consistent with the “responsibilities incumbent upon us under of international law.
Concretely, migrants will still be able to cross the border but they will be welcomed differently. Until now, agents had asked them if they were in danger in their country of origin, to which most arrivals responded in the affirmative. After a few brief checks, they were allowed to stay in the country until their asylum application was processed, which can take years.
From now on, the agents will no longer ask them the question. It will be up to migrants to assert their right to asylum themselves and the criteria will be much stricter. As a result, most of them will be returned to Mexico, until the number of migrants crossing the border drops to 1,500 per day. With some exceptions for unaccompanied children, victims of human trafficking and individuals in medical emergencies.
A “façade” according to Trump
The US president’s decision was mocked by the opposition. Starting with the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump. “It’s just a facade because he knows that a debate will take place in three weeks,” he wrote on his network Truth Social, in reference to the televised duel which will pit them against each other on June 27. For the former president, illegal migrants are at the origin of a wave of crime across the country. An assertion refuted by police statistics from large cities.
However, all polls show that the subject of immigration will have a decisive weight on Joe Biden’s chances of re-election in November. It is even the first concern of Americans, according to several studies by the Gallup Institute. For three months, 27% of voters cite immigration as the main problem that the United States faces. In the 12 months leading up to October 2023, 2.4 million people were intercepted at the border with Mexico, a record. Joe Biden, for his part, points the finger at his Republican adversaries, whom he accuses of blocking any migration reform to make it fail and continuing to criticize him. “Let’s solve the problem,” he said, recalling that he would never “demonize” migrants.
The left wing of the Democratic Party, already critical of President Biden over his management of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, could once again express its anger. Especially since the decree is based on a law previously used by the Trump administration to prohibit entry into the United States to nationals of several Muslim countries. The law was then blocked by a federal judge. This could also be the fate of this decree. The powerful American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced that it would challenge the measure in court.