President Joe Biden’s administration announced a tough new immigration measure this Tuesday that will punish all asylum seekers. Those who enter the United States illegally or do not seek this protection in the transit countries they pass through before reaching the border.
The measure could affect thousands of people who try this route each day to reach the United States, including many Colombians.
The new rule proposed by the Democratic administration will “assume” that you are “unsuitable” for asylum in either case and that immigrants “take advantage of legal, safe, and orderly routes to the United States or seek asylum or other protection in the countries they travel to, thereby reducing reliance on human trafficking networks that exploit immigrants.” ”, says the text submitted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Biden’s proposal will not take effect immediately, as it will first enter the public consultation phase in the next 30 days. Theoretically, the controversial Title 42, which allows the United States to deport people without considering their asylum claim as part of the protection of the agreed health emergency, is expected to come into effect from May, with the expiration date. To prevent the spread of covid-19 in 2020.
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Likewise, the administration warned that this is a temporary measure with an initial validity of two years and includes some exceptions. Among them, it will not apply to unaccompanied minors and will not apply to those who can prove that their application for asylum has been denied in one of the transit countries.
“To be clear, this was not our first or second choice. These are interim measures out of necessity and Congress that must pass a reform to put this problem in order,” an administration source told reporters.
The problem he mentions is the record number of immigrants showing up at the border: There were more than 2 million in the last year alone, and 130,000 of them were Colombians. This is a crisis still raging in 2023, as there were almost one million (60,000 Colombians) in the first four months of the fiscal period.
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Biden administration’s announcement represents the toughest anti-immigration movement ever during his tenure and is very similar to others developed by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
As a matter of fact, the former President of the Republic tried a similar measure during his government, but was stopped by the courts. In this case, lawsuits similar to Biden’s precaution are expected to be filed.
pursuant to US immigration law Immigrants fleeing persecution in their country can apply for asylum regardless of how they arrived in the country. and must remain on their territory until the case is resolved.
If the new norm is maintained, this will no longer apply and they will have to apply from their home country or third country.
At the same time, the administration is negotiating a new agreement with Mexico that would allow other countries to “express” their citizens to deport. such as Colombia, whose asylum applications were rejected because they were not processed correctly and according to the new guidelines.
Biden’s decision, which is also seen as a political strategy to avoid Republican criticism on the border crisis, has also been fiercely questioned by members of his own party and sympathetic groups who see it as reactionary and ruthless.
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“This challenges decades of human protection enshrined in U.S. law and international treaties, and publicly violates President Biden’s campaign promises to restore the right to asylum proposal,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
The administration rejects comparisons to the Trump era, arguing that in parallel, it has opened up other avenues for migrants to seek asylum on an orderly basis.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERİ
AIR REPORTER
WASHINGTON
On Twitter: @sergom68
Source: Exame
