The Biden administration can now begin immediately denying asylum to immigrants entering the country illegally and deporting them to their homeland or Mexico.
President of the United States Joe Biden plans to temporarily close the US-Mexico border, the White House announced on Tuesday.
– Today, Tuesday, the President will announce new historic measures to prevent asylum seekers who cross our southern border illegally, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates announced.
According to the authorities, the border can be closed when the number of border crossings exceeds 2,500 per day. The number of daily border crossings already exceeds that amount, so the regulation can come into effect practically immediately. However, the border can be reopened when the number of border crossings remains below 1,500 for two weeks.
Now the Biden administration can immediately begin denying asylum to immigrants entering the country illegally and deporting them to their homeland or Mexico.
In the past, migrants were allowed into the United States to wait for their asylum applications to be processed. However, due to the large number of border crossings, the processing of applications could take up to years.
Illegal immigration the biggest concern of US voters
Biden has toughened his approach to illegal immigration and border security, one of the most significant election issues in this year’s presidential election, where Biden will face former President Donald Trump’s.
Trump has criticized Biden for reversing actions that tightened border and immigration policies during his own presidency. Even before the White House’s announcement, Trump’s campaign team issued a statement criticizing Biden for the excessive amount of illegal immigration. Trump has also promised to tighten the border and immigration policy even more if he is re-elected.
For this reason, Biden has come under a lot of pressure due to the country’s border situation. According to the newspaper Wall Street Journal (WSJ). polls show that Biden has failed to address voters’ concerns about illegal immigration. According to opinion polls, immigration is a bigger concern among voters than, for example, inflation or the economy. This is also the opinion of an increasingly large number of supporters of Biden’s own party, the Democrats.
According to a recent poll by the news agency AP, two out of three voters are dissatisfied with Biden’s border policy. As many as 40 percent of Democrats think this way.
According to the WSJ, Biden decided to implement the restrictive measures despite dissenting opinions from several advisers. Advisers who have crossed paths with Biden say the regulation is likely to fail in court — and even if it does pass the judiciary, it would be difficult to enforce without significant funding from the US Congress.
However, Biden’s main advisers decided to support the tightening of border and immigration policies. They say a Democratic president needs to show concerned voters that the president is doing everything he can to address concerns about the border and illegal immigration.
Sources: AP, AFP, Reuters