Immigration, Biden's big headache: while he studies expediting deportations, Democratic legislators demand mass legalizations

The DHS will announce a tightening of asylum policy, while the president considers using his presidential powers on immigration to stop the arrival of illegals before the elections.

Montaje del presidente Biden sobre un grupo de inmigrantes vigilado por agentes de la Patrulla Fronteriza. — (Voz Media/Cordon Press)

Published by

Israel Duro

9 de mayo, 2024

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Immigration policy has become one of the major headaches for President Biden, but, above all, for candidate Biden. While his personal stance, and that of much of the Democratic Party, especially from the more progressive wing, has always been the soft touch, the millions of immigrants who have crossed the border during his mandate have put this issue as a one of the hot topics ahead of the election of the next tenant of the White House. At this moment, this dichotomy is exploding in the hands of the leader of the Executive, who is studying toughening asylum measures and speeding up expulsions while 83 legislators from his party asked him by letter to legalize millions of undocumented people who have entered the country.

According to Politico, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intends to announce new regulations for asylum seekers later this Thursday. The main new features include the immediate analysis of whether an undocumented immigrant meets the criteria to be admissible or not, instead of waiting for an interview at a later stage. This would speed up the deportations of those considered "inadmissible," such as those who have a criminal record or are on the list of terrorism suspects. CBS later noted that DHS sources highlighted that it is about applying certain barriers that already exist in current legislation during what are known as fear interviews.

Biden considers resorting to section 212(f)

However, this would be an advance since, also according to CBS, Biden is considering using his presidential powers to considerably restrict asylum approvals before the November elections. It would be through the execution of section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows a president to establish restrictions and even suspend the entry of migrants whose arrival is considered harmful to the interests of the United States.

Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate. Whenever the Attorney General finds that a commercial airline has failed to comply with regulations of the Attorney General relating to requirements of airlines for the detection of fraudulent documents used by passengers traveling to the United States (including the training of personnel in such detection), the Attorney General may suspend the entry of some or all aliens transported to the United States by such airline.

Mass Legalization

At the same time, a group of 83 Democratic congressmen - including members of the Hispanic Caucus and The Squad - sent a letter to Biden in which they requested the president to carry out a mass legalization of immigrants currently living in the country illegally. As a reason, they claim Economic issues (they contribute about 20 billion dollars to public coffers between taxes and social security) and family reasons (1.1 million Americans married to an undocumented person and almost 5 million children with American nationality have at least one undocumented parent).

In 2019 alone, undocumented immigrants contributed an estimated $9.7 billion in federal and state taxes and over $11 billion in social security contributions. Over 1.1 million U.S. citizens are married to an undocumented immigrant, and roughly 4.9 million U.S. children with American nationality have at least one undocumented parent. Deporting all such individuals—as former President Donald Trump has threatened to do if reelected —would devastate the American economy and destroy American families. Alternatively, streamlining pathways for undocumented immigrants with no criminal history and deep ties to the United States to obtain parole or a lawful immigration status would provide stability to their families, require them to pay taxes, and to check in with the U.S. government regularly. To implement such streamlining, we urge you to consider the following recommendations.