The number of people trying to reach the United States from Central and South America has grown enormously along the country’s southern border.
The confusing situation is the number one news in the United States at the moment. In this article, we will tell you what the situation is and what is known about it now.
What is happening at the border now?
There are tens of thousands of migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border trying to get to the U.S. either legally or illegally. Both are difficult.
This week, more than 11,000 migrants per day have crossed the border illegally, and the United States is preparing for more and more border crossings.
Border detention centers are already full to the brim with people who tried to cross the border illegally.
The aid organizations’ accommodation places set up at the borders are also full, and many have prepared to wait a long time in the sky for the opportunity to try to enter legally.
What is the cause of the situation?
On Friday morning at 7 a.m. Finnish time, the previous three years, valid for the previous president, expired Donald Trump’s early entry restrictions.
This so-called regulation 42 was introduced during the corona pandemic citing public health reasons. It has now lapsed as the US corona emergency has officially ended.
Regulation 42 allowed, among other things, that the United States was able to turn back asylum seekers immediately without processing asylum applications. For immigrants, however, it made it possible for a converted person to try to cross the border again, even the very next day.
On the other hand, people now have hope of being able to apply for asylum without the same fear of immediate return. But: the president Joe Biden the administration is making it even more difficult to get asylum. Those who crossed the border illegally are also threatened with a five-year grace period, when they may not enter the United States under threat of punishment.
So it is not possible to say with certainty which restrictions are more severe in practice, the old or the new. In a state of uncertainty, many migrants have applied to the border now.
What do the naysayers say?
Democrat Joe Biden’s new restrictions are tight, but Republicans don’t think they’re tight enough.
Republicans hold power in the lower house of Congress, i.e. the House of Representatives yesterday, Thursday, they approved the legal initiative (switching to another service)which would restore the strictest restrictions from the Trump era and toughen penalties for illegal border crossings.
The bill has no chance of succeeding in the upper house of Congress, i.e. the Senate, because the Democrats hold power there.
Republicans were working on their initiative right now to increase pressure on the Biden administration.
Elsewhere, Biden’s restrictions are met with opposing criticism.
Minutes before Decree 42 expired, NGOs sued the Biden administration. According to the organizations, Biden’s new restrictions are comparable to Trump’s restrictions, which were once overturned in court.
What happens next?
The development of the situation is completely based on guesswork, writes a newspaper, for example The New York Times (you are moving to another service).
According to the newspaper, the situation at the border was relatively calm hours after Decree 42 expired. At worst, the situation has been feared to drift into chaos.
The United States and Mexico share a border of more than 3,000 kilometers. The United States has increased the number of soldiers and officials at the busiest border crossings.
The Biden administration is trying to prevent people from arriving at the border with new processing centers in Central and South America and programs that allow people to apply for asylum electronically.
So far, these new avenues have been ineffective and only give a small number of migrants hope of reaching the United States.
Why do people aspire to the United States?
Immigrants are fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries, as well as corrupt and authoritarian regimes. Many people hope for a better life, but there can also be an acute threat at home.
Many of those who have recently arrived at the border are in the grip of uncertainty and hopelessness.
A Venezuelan, for example, spoke to the news agency AP about it John Daniel Barrios. The former military policeman was trying to cross the border to El Paso, Texas and said that his wife is already in custody in the United States.
– We have no money, no food, no place to stay, and the cartel is after us. Should we just wait for them to kill us?
Sources: Reuters, AP