On Thursday, the Biden administration announced new policies at the southern border that will prevent more immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua from crossing the border to seek asylum, while increasing the number of legal pathways for those migrants to seek asylum in their home countries.
President Joe Biden outlined the policy changes in brief remarks at the White House on Thursday. He blamed congressional Republicans for impeding the implementation of a more comprehensive plan that he announced upon taking office in 2021.
“The failure to pass and fund this comprehensive plan has increased the challenges that we’re seeing at the Southwest border,” he said in the Roosevelt Room.
The border enforcement actions “aren’t going to fix our entire immigration system, but they can help us a good deal in managing what is a difficult challenge,” he added.
Republicans have consistently chastised Biden for failing to visit the southern border earlier in his presidency. He plans to cross the border for the first time on Sunday in El Paso, Texas, en route to a summit meeting of North American leaders.
When asked why he is now visiting the border, Biden responded, “The Republicans haven’t been serious about this at all.”
The president’s announcement comes as his administration is dealing with a surge in illegal border crossings, particularly from those three countries. Haitians, Cubans, and Nicaraguans have avoided deportation by circumventing the Covid-19 border restrictions known as Title 42, which have prevented over 1.4 million border crossings by forcing migrants back into Mexico before claiming asylum. Citizens of Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua have been exempt from Title 42 because their home countries, and thus Mexico, refuse to accept them.
The Biden administration will now send up to 30,000 migrants from each of the three countries back into Mexico each month while allowing 30,000 asylum-seekers from each of the three countries to live and work in the United States for two years. Those accepted through the application process must demonstrate that they have a sponsor in the United States to support them, as Venezuelans and Ukrainians have done through programs established by the Biden administration for those countries.
According to senior administration officials, the program is intended to reduce the number of migrants who pay smugglers and embark on dangerous journeys to the United States.
Immigration advocates have criticized plans to limit the number of migrants who can cross the border, claiming that it violates international asylum rights. The Supreme Court allowed Title 42 — a Trump-era immigration policy put in place when the pandemic broke out to quickly expel asylum-seekers at the border — to remain in effect for the time being, putting on hold a judge’s ruling that would have ended it.
