The president’s policy shift marks the toughest border policy by a Democratic president in decades.
A young boy peels and eats a clementine through a gap in the border fence separating the United States and Mexico, as a new era of American immigration policy dawns.
A teenage girl is wrapped in a silver thermal blanket while a man threads his mobile phone through a metal plate on the fence so that someone on the other side can charge it.
In some ways, they are the lucky ones because they are among the last groups of immigrants to enter America. Introducing a new border policy.
The Presidential Decree President BidenThe federal government would temporarily close the border along the southern states if the number of illegal crossings in a day exceeded 2,500, as it now does routinely.
The order reversed a closely guarded secret that had been put in place since then, and Biden used the announcement to criticize Republican lawmakers for failing to pass a bipartisan bill on the border and to defend his immigration policies.
“This measure will help strengthen border controls and bring order to border procedures,” he said. “If the United States did not secure its borders, there would be no limit to the number of people trying to come here.” Inaction is not an option, we must take action.”
It marks a sharp about-face for Trump, who came to power by criticizing President Donald Trump’s tough measures to restrict immigration and is now behaving in a way that is reminiscent of his predecessor.
Supporters of the order say it will ease an overburdened system, but critics say it puts the lives of genuine asylum seekers at risk.
Stakeholders on both sides say it’s a politically cynical move with just five months to go until a general election in which immigration will feature heavily in voters’ minds.
“This sets a very bad precedent,” said Lillian Serrano, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, a nongovernmental organization.
“Is a president making politically motivated decisions to score political points in an election year more important to President Biden than respecting human rights? That’s the message.”
After completing procedures at the border in San Diego, currently the busiest city for illegal border crossings in the country, the migrants are taken by bus to the outskirts of the city and dropped off on the side of the road.
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Some of them had no idea what city they were in. One man from Ghana asked me how to get to New York, about 3,000 miles away.
Dulay, a young woman from Colombia, is trying to get to San Francisco to reunite with a friend.
She ran a shoe shop in her home country but is seeking asylum to escape gang violence.
“I fled my country and came here,” she said. “If Biden changes the law, I don’t know where I’ll go.”
Aurelio, from El Salvador, was also notified of the new policy. “I heard about the new decree,” he said. “I’m lucky to have arrived before it goes into effect, because it’s been my dream to come here.”
Children crossing the border unaccompanied and victims of human trafficking will not be covered by the new policy.
Still, this is the toughest border policy implemented by a Democratic president in decades.
It’s a shutout victory that shows just how far right the politics of immigration have shifted.
