President Biden Announces Expansion of Asylum Restrictions for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans

President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that the US will immediately start turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the border from Mexico illegally, in an expansion of an existing policy to prevent Venezuelans attempting to enter the US. This policy, which will also apply to asylum-seekers, is a major change to immigration rules that will remain in place even if the Supreme Court ends a Trump-era public health law allowing the US to turn away asylum-seekers.

The new rules come in response to the rising number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, which reached over 2.38 million during the fiscal year that ended on September 30th – the first time the number has topped 2 million. The Biden administration has faced criticism from Republicans for being ineffective on border security and the newly elected Republican House majority has promised congressional investigations into the matter.

Instead of turning away asylum-seekers, the US will accept 30,000 people per month from these four nations for two years and offer the ability to work legally as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks. This policy is intended to provide a “safe and humane” process for migrants, according to President Biden.

However, the announcement has drawn criticism from asylum and immigration advocates, who argue that the policy ties the Biden administration to the “poisonous anti-immigrant policies of the Trump era” instead of restoring fair access to asylum protections. The American Civil Liberties Union’s director of border strategies, Jonathan Blazer, stated that “seeking asylum is a legal right” and that President Biden spoke sympathetically about people fleeing persecution, but the plan announced “further ties his administration to the poisonous anti-immigrant policies of the Trump era instead of restoring fair access to asylum protections.”

It remains to be seen how this new policy will impact the number of migrants attempting to enter the US and whether it will be effective in addressing the issue of illegal border crossings.