“WHY NOW?”: BIDEN’S NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY TO LIMIT ASYLUM SEEKERS FACES QUICK CRITICISM IN TEXAS
Biden's proclamation leans on Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that lets a president limit entry of specific migrants if it is "detrimental" to national interest. Trump used the same provisions with his 2017 banning of people from Muslim-majority countries and a later policy barring asylum seekers that was ultimately struck down by courts.
Biden administration officials insist the new proposal is very different, but that will likely do little to prevent expected lawsuits to stop it. The American Civil Liberties Union vowed to challenge the order in court. "It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the organization's Immigrants’ Rights Project.
“By accelerating the criminalization of individuals pursuing the long-established legal and human right to seek asylum in the U.S., President Biden is fueling a sociopolitical climate aggressively hostile towards all immigrant, refugee and asylum-seeking people and families," said Faisal Al-Juburi of RAICES, a San Antonio nonprofit that provides free and low-cost legal services for migrants. "I wish I could say that the humanitarian consequences would be unfathomable, but we can in fact fathom them — because we’ve seen them time and again."
