Along with sending troops to the border, the Biden administration is trying to convince migrants to not try and enter that way in the first place. The State Department is preparing to open “processing centers” in Guatemala and Colombia where migrants wanting to come to the U.S. can meet with case workers and see if they qualify for one of multiple legal pathways into the country, and has plans to open more such centers in other countries in the hemisphere. The Biden Administration is also continuing to allow 30,000 migrants each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to apply for humanitarian parole from outside the U.S. and get permission to enter the U.S. via a commercial airline, instead of paying criminal smugglers to bring them over land.
“We are seeing a level of migration not just at our southern border, but throughout the hemisphere, that is unprecedented,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said April 30 on NBC’s Meet the Press. The administration’s approach, he said, is to “cut out the ruthless smugglers” and “deliver lawful pathways so people can access humanitarian relief without having to take the dangerous journey from their home countries.”
After May 11, Mayorkas said, people who try to cross into the U.S. between ports of entry will likely be blocked from claiming asylum or finding other legal pathways to enter. “If they arrive at our southern border in between ports of entry, we will deliver consequences,” Mayorkas said.
The Biden Administration is working to get a new immigration rule in place by Thursday that would set stricter conditions for who can claim asylum, adding that if a person was encountered by Border Patrol and trying to come into the U.S. between ports of entry, asylum officials should start with the assumption they would be denied asylum.
The expected surge in migrants at the border comes weeks after Biden announced his bid for
another term in office. A protracted border crisis could become a political liability for Biden going into the 2024 election. A poll in April of swing state voters by
Global Strategy Group found that 52% of voters think Biden is ignoring the problem of immigration. But Biden’s new efforts to open up more legal ways to enter the United States, while increasing the consequences for those who cross into the US illegally, may resonate with voters in the key states he needs to win reelection. The April poll found that 76% of swing state voters had positive views of increasing border security, and a similar majority of voters, 75%, viewed providing pathways to citizenship in a positive light.
time.com
