Posted on 05/12/2023 2:22:42 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Title 42 migrant expulsions will finally come to an end. And good riddance. A bad COVID-era policy adopted by the Trump administration and extended by the Biden administration, Title 42 upended a longstanding process outlined in immigration law and allowed border agents to quickly eject refuge-seeking migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum in the U.S.
The Title 42 order applied to people entering the country from Canada or Mexico, though expulsions overwhelmingly took place at the U.S.-Mexico border. Around 2.7 million migrants—largely from Mexico and Central America—were expelled under this order and sent back to Mexico or their home countries, under the auspice of protecting Americans from COVID-19.
"The use of Title 42 caused great suffering for little or no benefit," writes George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy. "It was also an egregious example of the abuse of 'public health' emergency powers for unrelated policy goals" and "may have set a dangerous precedent for its future invocation."
But don't expect U.S. border policy to get much better for those seeking refuge here. New plans pushed by President Joe Biden are hardly what one might call migrant-friendly: The plans slowly expand tools for would-be immigrants to apply to come here legally (with no guarantees, of course) while making it much more difficult for those who actually try to cross the border to get legal status.
To the former point, Biden says the U.S. will set up more Regional Processing Centers where migrants can apply for legal immigration status in the U.S., Canada, or Spain from within Latin America, rather than simply show up at the U.S-Mexico border.
Regional Processing Centers are "designed to cut smugglers out of the equation by giving people access to protection and legal pathways earlier in their migration journey, and eventually before they cross international lines at all," notes Andrew Selee at the Migration Policy Institute. However, "little is known as yet about how these centers will function in practice," and "they will only exist in embryonic form, if at all, by the time Title 42 ends."
Meanwhile, Biden has enacted new restrictions for asylum-seekers as well. These include "the adoption of stricter asylum rules that make it harder to get protection in the United States for those who have crossed the border unlawfully," notes The New York Times:
Under the old system, which critics called "catch and release," many migrants who reached the United States would ask for asylum and be allowed to remain in the country until their case was resolved in immigration court.
The Biden administration's new rule presumes that those who do not use lawful pathways to enter the United States are ineligible for asylum when they show up at the border. Migrants at the border can rebut this presumption only if they sought asylum or protection in another country through which they traveled en route to the United States and were denied safe haven there, or if they can demonstrate exceptional circumstances, such as a medical emergency.
They may have a phone interview from a border holding facility with an asylum officer, and can be quickly deported if they are found ineligible to apply. Unlike under Title 42, they will receive a permanent mark on their record that bans them from entering the United States for five years, and could face criminal charges.
Putting aside the moral or political merits (or lack thereof) of such restrictions for a moment, it's worth focusing on how likely these plans are to actually accomplish their goals.
Considering how abysmally Title 42 worked at curbing illegal border crossings, it's not very likely that these policies will work either, suggests David J. Bier at the Cato Institute:
Title 42 has failed on its own terms. Crossings have increased. Illegal crossings have increased. Evasions of Border Patrol have increased. The outcomes speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the president's plan now involves largely recreating those failed conditions by banning asylum under different statutory authority and deporting more people to Mexico where they will have little option but to attempt to cross illegally again.
See Bier's full post for lots of data on Title 42's failure to stem unauthorized border crossings.
The Biden administration "has done more than any since Eisenhower to increase legal migration to prevent illegal immigration, but much more can and should be done," concludes Bier. "Unfortunately, the main focus now seems to be perpetuating the status quo through deporting people to Mexico once Title 42 ends rather than building on the successful legal migration programs."
In general, our conversation around asylum policy should be expanded, suggests Somin. "The public debate over asylum policy ignores the fact that even the most generous possible version of current policy is constrained by very narrow criteria for eligibility that exclude many migrants fleeing horrific violence and oppression," he points out.
For now, Biden has sent 1,500 troops to the border to address what's expected to be an influx of asylum-seekers who (falsely) believe that Title 42 expiring as of 11:59 p.m. last night betters their chances of being granted asylum here after crossing the border illegally.
Ms. Brown is a maroon.
Reason magazine must be a really leftist rag.
The last time I looked at the Libertarian Platform, it favored open borders. So the piece is no surprise coming from Reason Magazine.
Someone on NPR was complaining about the Biden Administration’s plan for immigration, too. Nothing else here on the radio (boonies, NPR from local colleges). I can stand listening to NPR for a few seconds every now and then to find out what the opposition is up to.
There is no border policy it ceased to exist in 1/2020
I don’t know but the demented human whoopi cushion made of meat invited another “unaccompanied” Honduran toddler to come to America with offers of free sh*t and now the toddler is dead at the border. Another “humanitarian tragedy” caused by the crazy nut sack shacked up in the Oval Orifice.
Why are our borders ruled by “policy” from one administration to the next? There are laws on the books passed by the people’s representatives in Congress. Just because Democrats don’t like these laws because they are too frugal for their liking doesn’t mean the Executive Branch can disregard them. Yet Congress rolls over and allows it to happen because cheap labor makes money for those in power and unemployed cheap labor is paid for by the public. There’s no downside for the powerful elites.
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