President Joe Biden ran for office with promises to take a humane approach to immigration and the crisis at the southern border, an approach opposite to that of the previous Trump administration. However, Biden’s recent policies are raising the question of whether these promises were to appeal to the democratic base, rather than to actually address the poor treatment of Mexican immigrants. A suite of policies on immigration announced by the Biden administration in early 2022 closely resemble those of the Trump administration, which was vastly criticized by human rights and immigration advocates for its inhumane treatment of migrants. The Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy—also known as Migrant Protection Protocols—is just one example of this, as it forced migrants to await asylum hearings from Mexico, a process that often takes months, or even years. The policy received widespread criticism, as it puts asylum seekers at risk of exploitation, kidnapping, assault, and other dangerous conditions.
When examining Biden’s proposed immigration policies, it becomes clear that they directly contradict the promises he made while campaigning, put asylum seekers at risk, and constitute a major setback for the betterment of the U.S. immigration system. For example, on Tuesday, February 26th, 2023, the Biden administration announced a new policy aimed at attempting to manage the migrant crisis at the southern border. The legislation would bar migrants who have traveled through and sought asylum in other countries from seeking asylum once they arrive in the United States. The hope is that this law will encourage migrants to seek asylum in other countries that they travel through, instead of in the U.S. Evidently, Biden is attempting to divert and restrict migrants entry into the U.S., rather than helping those already here and improving the avenues of seeking asylum currently in place.
Biden’s policies further resemble those of the Trump administration in that they make it easier to rapidly deport those who did not first seek asylum in a country they passed through. Additionally, they make it so those who did not notify border authorities through the mobile app CBP One,which was created in response to the increasing number of asylum seekers, are also at risk of deportation. While the app is intended to make the immigration process more efficient by allowing people to submit initial claims electronically, requiring asylum seekers to utilize the app is hypocritical and counterintuitive, as it has continuously proved to be unable to handle the thousands of people attempting to schedule asylum hearings and appointments with officials. Every day, families and individuals try and fail to make appointments through CBP One, ultimately leaving them stuck waiting for weeks at migrant detention centers. Additionally, there are concerns about the ability of the app to ensure that users’ personal information is secure.
There is also the obvious issue of accessibility when it comes to technology of these sorts. The majority of those arriving at the border are fleeing extreme poverty and dangerous environments, and thus cannot be expected to have reliable access to a smartphone. It is unethical for the Biden administration to turn away migrants just because they are unable to navigate or use the subpar resources they are provided. Until efficiency, privacy, and accessibility issues are resolved, migrants should not be expected or required to rely on CBP One to assist them in the asylum process.
The proposed policy would take effect in May 2023 and last two years, paralleling the current policy known as Title 42, which expires in May and has been in effect since the spring of 2020. Upon examination, the two policies have much in common. When running for office, Biden promised to end Title 42, but is instead now expanding on it. The COVID-era policy was introduced in March 2020, giving the government the ability to grant emergency action regarding immigration during the pandemic. The policy allowed officials at the border to send migrants back to Mexico quickly after crossing the border without first allowing them to go through the asylum process. The Trump administration relied on Title 42 to reduce border crossings due to what his administration claimed were “COVID-19 precautions” under the pretext of national security. However, the policy has proved to be ineffective and counterintuitive, as it has created high recidivism rates. It seems that Biden is attempting to replace the older policy with a newer, slightly different version without actually attempting to find long-term solutions to the crisis at hand.
Border towns and officials are overwhelmed with the record-high rates of border crossings that Title 42 and recidivism have created. These small communities have insufficient resources and are not equipped to handle this crisis, leading to spaces such as convention centers, schools, and other government buildings to be converted into a makeshift detention center to accommodate upwards of 2,000 asylum seekers. The federal government and the Biden administration are partly to blame for this, but are putting the responsibility on border states and towns to find the solutions. The border city of El Paso has certainly felt the strain from the record-high numbers of migrants coming across the border. Mario D’Agostino, deputy city manager of El Paso, is asking for immediate solutions to the issues.
“There’s got to be a more orderly fashion when we’re seeing numbers of this size,” he says, asking for alternative solutions to be looked at besides Title 42.
Under Title 42, 2 million migrants have been turned away and denied asylum. The Biden Administration claims that the new policies will “help ensure secure, orderly, and humane processing of migrants once Title 42 eventually lifts.” While Title 42 does end in May 2023, the new policies that will follow in its place will serve the same purpose, and are a band aid solution to a much bigger problem.
“Expanded access to legal migration and protection pathways in the United States” is included in the Biden administration’s immigration goals released in 2021, but Biden is still far from doing that with recent immigration policies. Instead of providing appropriate alternative avenues for immigrants, the proposed policies limit access to asylum.
Recently, Biden appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to oversee diplomatic efforts with the Northern Triangle (a term used to refer to El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala) to tackle the crisis at the southern border. The administration has said that Harris’s responsibility is to address the root cause of the crisis and find long-term solutions, developing a $4 billion plan to aid in this endeavour. Harris has goals of creating regional jobs, ensuring more digital access, and increasing farmers’ incomes. But while these efforts are ambitious and much-needed, they are attempting to prevent immigration instead of improving the pathways to asylum. Given that there has recently been an increase in migrants from alternative regions, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection reporting that in December 2022 77,043 migrants came to the U.S. from Cuba or Nicaragua, the Biden administration needs to expand their scope of focus on immigration issues in Latin American regions, rather than trying to prevent asylum seekers from entering the U.S.
Moreover, the Biden administration is attempting to address the causes of migration while blatantly ignoring the role the U.S. has played in creating these conditions of instability and violence in Latin America. US interventions in Latin America going back decades have created many of the problems that have driven millions of people to flee. Starting over a century ago, under President Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. took the role of “regional policeman” in Latin America. At the time, Roosevelt was concerned with the crisis in Venezuela, and turned to military intervention to restore stability in the region.
Following its intervention in Venezuela, the United States increasingly used military force to act as “international police” in Latin American countries and support military coups, thus creating instability in the regions such as Guatemala, which experienced one of the most brutal wars Latin America has seen. The 30-plus year conflict started in 1954 after the CIA helped overthrow the country’s democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz, and then proceeded to back military abuses and violence for decades under the dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas.
Candidly, accepting refugees from Latin America is a matter of reparations. Current discourse around the immigration crisis cannot continue to ignore the U.S.’s role in creating these problems, but that is precisely what the Biden Administration is doing. A report released at the end of 2022 outlines that the root causes of migration from the Northern Triangle of Central America are due to natural disasters, socioeconomic issues, security conditions, and governance. However, the government still fails to acknowledge that the socioeconomic issues and instability were partly caused by the United States. The wounds that U.S. foreign intervention in Latin America caused have lasted decades, and are yet to be addressed—or even acknowledged. Deliberate intervention in the region has long been rooted in profit at the expense of the members of vulnerable populations, many of which face violence, poverty, and political instability. Further, these migrants face unimaginable hardships in their journey to the U.S. border, just to be turned away and sent back when they arrive.
Additionally, both Title 42 and the immigration policies proposed by the Biden administration directly violate domestic and international law. Part of the framework of the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Refugee Protocol places the principle of non-refoulement under international law; this principle declares that no one seeking asylum should be returned or sent back to places where they would face persecution, torture, or other harm. The U.S., among other countries, ratified these terms. In recent years, however, the U.S. has attempted to circumvent the non-refoulement principle in an attempt to deter or prevent asylum seekers and as an easy way to address the immigration crisis. The result of these policies is detrimental, causing human suffering and family separations. With these new policies and rules, the Biden administration is attempting to offshore vulnerable asylum seekers to other nations.
“Requiring persecuted people to first seek protection in countries with no functioning asylum systems themselves is a ludicrous and life-threatening proposal,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
The slew of immigration policies announced by the Biden Administration ultimately restricts access to asylum and puts vulnerable refugees at risk, going against numerous campaign promises and inciting backlash from human rights activists. Democratic rhetoric on immigration is almost unanimously that of integration and inclusion, but Biden has still decided to go against those norms. The thousands of migrants arriving at the southern border everyday are fleeing violence, persecution, poverty, and other extreme circumstances that the history of U.S. foreign policy and military intervention has caused. Expansion of legal access to asylum is the next logical step that the federal government needs to take, which is long overdue. Increasing the number of legal border crossing locations, ensuring that migrants basic human rights are respected, and providing proper legal counsel is critical to ensure that the United States remains an immigrant safe community.
Nadia Garriga 
Maahi Kumar 
Eloisa Harper