We’ve been hearing rumors for a while now that President Joe Biden and his handlers have finally seen the writing on the wall and are planning to start to “crackdown” on illegal migrants crossing into our country over the southern border. Now, White House insiders are saying that today could be the day. The President will reportedly be announcing new, “tougher” policies for asylum-seekers looking to enter the United States. I’m sure you’re all relieved, even if the move comes more than three years too late and billions of dollars short. But what will these changes look like? Are we finally going to close the border again? Not in the slightest. As you will see below, these are cosmetic changes at best, designed to drive a couple of headlines and hopefully salvage a few points in his approval ratings. (Associated Press)
The Biden administration plans to propose a new rule Thursday aimed at speeding up the asylum claims process for some migrants — a potential prelude to broader actions from President Joe Biden later this year that would impose a bigger crackdown at the border.
It’s meant to affect migrants with criminal records or those who would otherwise be eventually deemed ineligible for asylum in the United States. The proposal, which the Department of Homeland Security plans to announce on Thursday, was confirmed by four people familiar with its contents who were granted anonymity to detail plans not yet public.
Under current law, a migrant who arrives at the border and undergoes an initial screening for “credible fear” — one criterion for asylum — is allowed to continue with the process even if they have a criminal background or would pose a security risk. A judge would later determine whether that migrant would be eligible for asylum.
To be fair, there is one element of the reported changes that could be a significant, positive move in the correct direction. Currently, migrants showing up at the border and seeking to claim asylum only need to assert that they have a “credible fear” of reprisal in their home country. At that point, they are allowed to enter and await a court date where a judge could rule on the claim, but the system is so overloaded that the migrants typically won’t receive a court date for years, making the entire exercise pointless. If the reported change is implemented, an immigration official interviewing the migrant could make the decision on the spot, sending the person back to Mexico to wait.
That was the good (or at least not entirely bad) news. The rest of it is much worse. First of all, this policy would not apply to all migrants who show up at the border. It would only apply to those with known or knowable criminal backgrounds. That would only wind up involving a comparative handful of the migrants. Many arrive with no viable identification and some use fake IDs. Even if they do provide their actual names, some countries like Venezuela do not share their citizens’ background records with U.S. immigration officials. It’s impossible to vet many of them.
Even the people involved with developing the proposal admitted that the changes would only affect “a relatively small universe of migrants and those who would not be qualified to receive asylum protections anyway.” The vast majority of the people showing up at the border are coming because they believe that they will be given jobs and economic opportunities. That isn’t a valid excuse for an asylum claim, but Joe Biden has offered pardons to millions of people based on nothing more than their country of origin. Also, limiting the exceptions to only those with criminal backgrounds is idiotic because we weren’t supposed to be letting criminals in to begin with.
On top of all of that, even if these changes were actually useful and desirable, the sources who spoke with the AP said that it would take “months” before they could be put into effect. Seriously? How many months? It’s less than six months until the election. So no matter what Biden does or doesn’t announce today, the end result would likely be a relative handful of criminal illegal aliens being turned away in the weeks before election day.
If that’s anyone’s idea of a “crackdown” on the border crisis, I don’t know what to tell you. Biden’s people are panicking over his poll numbers, particularly on the topic of immigration and border security. They know he needs to look like he’s “doing something” in an effort to buy a few more votes in Michigan, but this proposal is simply a nothingburger.