The Biden administration has announced its most restrictive border control measures to date. The policy could ban tens of thousands of migrants crossing the border from seeking asylum here if they had not already done so in countries they had passed through. Below, Victor Fernandez explains the policy, the false narratives around immigration, and what that means for the movement.
TITLE 42, the pandemic-era regulation that allowed for both the denial of entry to asylum seekers into the US, and their expedited removal, ended on May 11. In the run-up to the deadline, the Biden administration announced that it would be sending 1,500 troops to the border. This is in part a response to the fear mongering by the Republicans, who paint a picture of a massive wave of immigrants coming into the US as a response to the end of Title 42 — in fact several Republican states sued the Biden administration for trying to end Title 42 earlier. They intend to use the issue as a political football in next year’s election.
By sending troops to the border, the Biden administration has played into the Republicans’ hands. It validated the false fears that the right wants to instill among regular people. Such fears are used to excuse the absolutely horrible effects of Title 42, which has led to a humanitarian crisis on the border with thousands of asylum seekers left destitute in Mexican border cities, family separations, and inhumane detentions. The Biden administration has warned that people crossing into the country now will be presumed ineligible for asylum and subject to deportation, or even jail time.
Republicans, like Florida Governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, are using this fear and xenophobia to push anti-immigrant legislation — including pushing E-Verify on employers with 25 workers or less, not allowing undocumented people to use out of state driver’s licenses, and increasing the penalties for various crimes associated with being undocumented. This is an open attack against immigrants. In the wake of the passing of this legislation, viral videos are showing up on social media of empty restaurants and abandoned workplaces. These scenes, reminiscent of the passing of AB1070 in Arizona first voted into law in 2010, are being used by the right to suggest they are doing the job the Democrats are “unwilling” to do. But it also presents them with a problem. Florida GOP representative Rick Roth, who supported DeSantis’ state-wide anti-immigrant SB1718, now admits it “has a lot of negative consequences“ in that tourism, construction and agricultural businesses can’t find workers as frightened immigrants are leaving the state. Yet, he still claims it is positive that it keeps the undocumented from moving to Florida, and suggests the Democrats are soft on immigration.
Such a narrative hides the reality of the situation. While the right is definitely anti-immigrant and uses any opportunity to whip up racism and xenophobia for political gain, the Democrats and the Biden administration are not at all pro-immigration. Quite the contrary. Biden has overseen the formal institutionalization of a new level of enforcement aimed at permanently limiting the access of asylum seekers into the United States. This is something the Trump administration was unable to do because of strong pushback from liberal groups. But now that it is Biden policy, many nonprofits are turning a blind eye.
When the Biden administration first announced its immigration plans at the start of this year, the U.N. Human Rights Chief warned that they appeared to violate international agreements, reiterating that, “The right to seek asylum is a human right, no matter a person’s origin…. nor how they arrived at an international border.” The National Immigrant Justice Center stated that the proposed new rule “violates U.S. obligations” to people fleeing persecution under US and International Rights law, and that it “will result in harm and death to people who need protection and must flee their homes quickly.”
Economic Migration and Political Asylum: A False Distinction
It is important to realize that asylum law historically allowed anyone seeking asylum to enter the US and surrender to authorities either at a port of entry or after entering the country. An asylum seeker was allowed to temporarily reside in the county while their asylum case went through the courts. Like many other examples of racist laws in this country, this law was mainly enforced only to the benefit of certain nationalities when it suited US geopolitical interests. Central Americans seeking asylum as a result of US imperial meddling in their countries, were seen as economic refugees, not political asylum seekers deserving of refugee status.
The migrant caravans under Trump pushed the contradiction of a beneficial law and its asymmetrical enforcement to a breaking point. As a result, the Trump administration enacted the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which barred asylum seekers from entering the US while their asylum cases were being heard. Trump then doubled down with Title 42, which also barred entry of asylum seekers into the US and allowed for their expedited removal if they were caught in an unauthorized entry.
After winning the election, the Biden administration made no effort to dismantle the Remain in Mexico policy or Title 42. The Remain in Mexico policy was removed by the courts, not Biden. Title 42 has remained in place up until the formal “end” of the pandemic announced this year, when it had no legal grounds to continue. It was widely opposed by public health experts from the start.
New Rules, Same Policy
Now that Title 42 is gone, the Biden administration has announced a new regulation for asylum seekers that would bar their entry into the US if they passed through a third country and did not seek asylum in that country first. This is a policy directed at asylum seekers coming in from the southern border. Similar policies used all over the world by the EU, Australia, and others to allow developed countries to shirk their humanitarian responsibilities and displace refugees in poorer countries permanently. Under Biden, this policy essentially de-facto preserves Remain in Mexico. Already the Mexican government has stopped issuing safe passage permits, are stopping refugees at checkpoints, and dispersing them around the country (away from the US border) with uncertain futures. This is how third-country processing works.
During the election Biden promised to “modernize” the immigration system. What this means today is that anyone seeking asylum now has to use the CBPOne app — a horribly designed piece of software that adds an extra layer of complexity and difficulty in the process of obtaining asylum.
In the meanwhile, the Biden administration has opened up pathways from certain countries such as Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua for a limited number of asylum seekers to enter the US. However, those seeking asylum must do so from their country of origin, go through a rigorous application process, and have a US sponsor. This, of course, could only be achieved by asylum seekers who have the means to do so. Most refugees simply cannot jump these hurdles.
Codified Hypocrisy
What the Biden administration has done is codify into law the hypocrisy of the original asylum laws’ enforcement. It has created pathways for a small number of asylum seekers to enter the country, while the majority of people who desperately need asylum are forced to jump through an insurmountable number of obstacles and are eventually denied entry. This mirrors the regular non-asylum immigration system, where wealth and influence is given easy access while labor is denied entry, forcing people into the ranks of the undocumented. Asylum seekers caught in the US are also slated for expedited removal and banned from the US for five years, therefore adding to their vulnerability for massive exploitation.
Immigration and the Right Wing
Going into the 2024 election cycle, the narrative around immigration will be one of the right wing pushing enforcement while Biden picks up pro-immigrant votes he doesn’t deserve. In fact Republican House member from Ohio Jim Jordan (a Trump ally and anti-immigration bigot), offered qualified support for Biden’s new policy early on while continuing to push for more. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (an anti-immigrant group dubbed a Hate Group by Southern Poverty Law Center) praised the plan as a “good first step.” .
Nevertheless, Biden is still being accused of being “soft on the border” by Republicans. Some on the far-right (like Jim Jordan, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado) are even mirroring the fascist great-replacement theories, accusing Biden of intentionally creating a border crisis and inviting an “invasion” across the US-Mexico border with the intention of “changing our culture.” This may make Biden look moderate by comparison, but pushes him even further to his right. Without a larger, vocal and more militant movement criticizing Biden’s policies from the perspective of immigrant rights, he is only providing a more stable version of Trump’s policies that are more likely to survive challenges in the courts.
Fight for Change and Against Borders
Unfortunately, many on the left and in liberal circles will stay quiet about Biden’s increased anti-immigrant policies. And even those who have criticized aspects, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the ACLU, are not using their position to mobilize immigrant communities and their supporters into action. However, election years give the pro-immigrant left an opening to force real change in the immigration system. When the Dreamers sat in at Obama’s office during his reelection campaign, Obama had no choice but to do something positive for immigrants, and that’s how DACA was born.
We must not be afraid of taking Democrats to task for their policies and demand to remove any impediment from allowing asylum seekers entry into this country. It is our duty to also fight for the rights of the millions of immigrants living here already regardless of how they got here and their immigration status. We must build a movement and struggle against the anti-immigrant forces of the Republican and Democratic parties.
This issue is only going to become more important. We already face migration due to disruption from changing climate–which the US has contributed disproportionately to. Global warming will increase the needs of masses of people to move within and over borders in coming years. The only path to climate justice is to welcome them. We need to work now to create a future policy and a future world where they will be able to find safety, and not be left to burn. We must also broaden our demands to allow all people the right to move anywhere in the world, for any reason, to seek a better life for themselves and their families.
— Victor Fernandez
Marx21 US 