“Do not come to the border” without first having initiated a legal procedure: Joe Biden tried on Thursday to send a message that combined firmness and humanity in the face of the record number of migrant arrivals at the border with Mexico, a politically dangerous issue for the US president.
The Democrat promised to fix a “broken” immigration system, in a speech at the White House, although he acknowledged that this “difficult” problem would not be solved “overnight.”
Joe Biden will travel on Sunday, for the first time after two years in power, to the southern border of the United States, more precisely to El Paso, Texas.
Then he will go to Mexico, and he has already announced that the “strengthening of the border” would be at the center of his talks with his counterpart Manuel López Obrador, who sometimes has very fresh relations with his great neighbor. The president engaged in a balancing act on Thursday.
“Secure our border and fix immigration policy”
On the one hand, he lashed out at “extremist” Republicans, accusing them of “demagogy” in the face of the immigration crisis, and accusing them of blocking his requests for funding to deal with the problem.
“We can secure our border and fix immigration policy so that it is orderly, safe and humane, we can do all of this without quenching the flame of freedom that has brought generations of immigrants to the United States,” he launched.
However, his administration has announced “new consequences” for migrants who cross the border illegally: the United States will resort more frequently to immediate expulsions, accompanied by a five-year ban on new entry into the territory.
There were still more than 230,000 arrests in November at the US southern border, a record level. However, the White House also indicated that up to 30,000 qualified migrants would be allowed each month to enter the United States from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the four countries where most immigrants come from. However, these arrivals will have to be made by plane so as not to increase the workload of the border guards on the ground and in the framework of a legal process.
Many drownings in the Rio Grande
Large sectors of the US economy, particularly agriculture, depend on immigrant labor, but the immigration system is now on the brink of collapse. Migrants, eager to escape poverty or violence in their home countries, often take enormous risks to enter US soil.
More than 800 people died in the fiscal year, many drowning in the Rio Grande, according to a border guard official quoted by NPR radio.
These flows also put pressure on border towns, whose infrastructure struggles to house these migrants in dignified conditions.
A measure introduced by Trump is still in force
Faced with constant criticism from his opposition, but also from associations in defense of migrants, Joe Biden, who plans to run for a second term, seems finally determined to take up the issue again. So far, his administration has mostly settled for sending migrants back to Mexico based on a measure implemented by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump during the pandemic.
In the name of the health crisis, it allows for the immediate return of any illegal alien apprehended at the border, including potential asylum seekers.
This measure, baptized as “Title 42”, is the object of an intense judicial guerrilla war whose epilogue will be known in June in the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Biden administration, aware that lifting this measure will further encourage immigration candidates, is asking for funds to hire border staff, as well as specialized asylum judges.
Source: BFM TV
