In one of his first executive orders, on February 2, 2021, newly elected Joe Biden ordered his administration to “restore and improve” the process of applying for asylum in the United States. This one had been “seriously deteriorated”he believed, by his predecessor, Donald Trump, architect of a policy “in violation of [leurs] values and causing unnecessary human suffering”.
The White House hoped to achieve the impossible: to guarantee the right of asylum, in accordance with international law, while dissuading migrants from crowding at the border to try to benefit from it. Bet lost. In 2022, border police arrested 2.4 million people, a record even surpassing that of 2021, Joe Biden’s first year in power (1.7 million arrests).
To the disappointment of humanitarian organizations, the Biden administration has made a complete policy reversal. In January, she announced that 30,000 asylum seekers from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua would be admitted each month, and for a period of two years, on the condition that they did not report to the border and have a sponsor in the United States. This so-called “carrot and stick” approach has resulted in a dramatic drop – 95% – in the number of arrests of nationals of these countries. All nationalities combined, the number of migrants arrested fell from 251,487 in December 2022 to 150,000 in January, the lowest since the Democratic president took office.
Indignation
On February 21, the Biden administration deemed the test conclusive enough to extend the principle to all migrants. Under the new rules, which will come into effect at the end of March, migrants will be declared ineligible for asylum if they have crossed the border illegally or transited through third countries – for example, Mexico – without having first asked for protection.
They will have to resort to mechanisms “legal, safe and orderly” to submit their application: make an appointment via a smartphone application or register for one of the specific programs announced in January for Central American countries. Exceptions are made for medical emergencies, people who are victims of threats “extreme” or “imminent” or human trafficking. Unaccompanied children are also exempt from these rules.
The project has aroused the indignation of associations for the defense of migrants, who deplore that the right to asylum is conditioned on the way in which migrants have entered the country and de facto reserved for those who can arrive by plane. “It’s basically a copy of the Trump-era regulations. It was illegal and immoral at the time; it is no less so now”denounced Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, a former member of the Obama administration and director of the NGO Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, signatory, like more than 290 associations, of a letter calling on President Biden to postpone the implementation place of regulation.
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