Biden Shuts Down Asylum During National Immigrant Heritage Month
You can't make this stuff up. This is what happens in an election year.
I am sharing here a message I wrote this week for subscribers to the mailing list of the Latin American Relief Fund (LARF). The irony of President Biden shutting down the border on June 4, one day before proclaiming the month of June as National Immigrant Heritage Month, is not lost on me.
Biden’s new asylum ban will cause undue suffering to asylum seekers who will find themselves stuck on the Mexican side of the border. Not only will many fall prey to kidnappings and violence by Mexican cartels, a substantial number can be expected to seek services from overburdened migrant shelters in Mexico while pursuing asylum applications there … or while waiting to seek asylum in the United States
I do not write this blog for money. But if you have a few dollars to spare and you are concerned about desperate migrants being forced to remain in Mexico because of U.S. immigration policies, please consider making a donation to LARF. This is a nonprofit organization that helps fund the operations of a migrant shelter in Central Mexico, located near the train tracks where many migrants ride the notorious “train of death,” La Bestia (“The Beast”), as a means to get to the border. Tragically, some people fall (or are pushed) from the top of freight cars, and suffer terrible injuries (if they survive the fall at all). The ABBA House migrant shelter in Celaya that LARF supports provides medical and rehabilitative care to migrants who have lost limbs in the course of their train journey toward the United States.
Read more below.
New U.S. Asylum Ban Will Strand More Migrants in Mexico
By Careen Shannon
June is National Immigrant Heritage Month in the United States. I was planning to write a feel-good piece about how most Americans are descendants of people who migrated from other lands, and how the United States has – at least in theory – always been a nation of immigrants.
Then on June 4, 2024, President Biden issued what amounts to a new asylum ban, and I was reminded of how the “nation of immigrants” story is really just that: a story. The reality, both historically and currently, is actually quite different.
Immigration Benefits the United States
The real story is that the United States has a decidedly xenophobic history with respect to immigration. Nonetheless, the contributions of immigrants to U.S. society are indisputably and overwhelmingly positive. Immigrants revitalize local communities, start new businesses at twice the rate of native-born Americans, pay hundreds of billions in taxes each year, and make countless socio-cultural contributions to the country (including introducing into American culture exciting new foods, new music, new sporting achievements and new scientific discoveries). Not only that, but if not for immigration, the U.S. population would be declining thanks to a birthrate that is below replacement levels.
Biden’s New Asylum Ban is Not New
The truth is that the Biden administration has enacted a number of policies designed to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border to migrants, even those who express a fear of returning to their home countries and who are entitled to apply for asylum in the United States. This is true even though Biden came into office fresh off a campaign during which he was notably critical of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
In the wake of terminating both MPP (the Migrant Protection Protocols or “Remain in Mexico” program) and Title 42, the Biden administration implemented a number of restrictive policies of its own. On May 11, 2023 – the same date that Title 42 was lifted – the administration issued a rule denying access to asylum to most migrants who were not eligible to cross the border at an official port of entry. The administration also increased its use of an “expedited removal” process that denies asylum seekers access to a hearing before an Immigration Judge, and required most migrants seeking to enter the U.S. from the land border with Mexico to schedule appointments using an app called CBP One, which is notoriously unreliable and often rejects applications or makes applicants wait weeks or months for an appointment.
Now, the Biden administration has issued a new proclamation that empowers the Department of Homeland Security to shut down the border to asylum seekers whenever the number of migrants arriving between official ports of entry along the border exceeds 2,500 per day. As a practical matter, the new order went into effect immediately, since daily averages already exceed that level.
Moreover, many migrants who arrive at the border will be subject to expedited removal – to Mexico, or to their home country if they are not from Mexico. This new policy will lead to larger numbers of migrants being stranded on the streets in dangerous Mexican border cities, or seeking refuge in Mexico’s overwhelmed network of migrant shelters.
Some migrants could also be subject to a five-year ban from seeking to enter the United States again, or might even be subject to criminal prosecution. Currently, Arizona Republicans are trying to make illegal immigration a state crime. Texas already has a similar law in place, though it is currently enjoined pending appeal.
And what is their crime? Fleeing danger and seeking safety.
What Can We Do?
So, what can the average person do to help? On the larger scale, American voters can support candidates who express reasonable views on immigration. Senate Democrats were prepared to pass a restrictive immigration bill basically written by Republicans, only to be stymied in the House where the Speaker, acting on orders from former President Trump, withdrew support for the bill and refused to let it go to the floor of Congress for a vote. If Trump becomes president, things will get much worse. He has vowed to become a dictator on Day One (and does anyone think he’ll let go of such power on Day Two and beyond?) and to engage in mass arrests, detention and deportation of millions of immigrants.
On a smaller, more personal scale, we can offer assistance to immigrants in our local communities, and we can support nonprofit organizations that offer shelter, legal services, medical care, language classes, and social support to migrants. One way that I do this myself is by serving on the Board of Directors of the Latin American Relief Fund, which helps fund the operations of the ABBA House migrant shelter in Central Mexico, and which is about to launch a Capital Campaign to raise money for a new “Cultural Center for Human Rights” that will provide housing, medical care, job training, and legal support for hundreds of migrants forced to remain in Mexico.
The fates of people in mobility – people migrating not because they want to, but because they have to – should not be turned into points to be won on the campaign trail. These are our fellow human beings, making devastatingly difficult choices, and they deserve our understanding and support.
Careen Shannon is a former practicing immigration attorney and Adjunct Professor of Immigration Law. She is a member of the Board of the Latin American Relief Fund, the primary funder of ABBA House in Celaya.
Copyright (C) 2024 Latin American Relief Fund. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.