NEW YORK, CMC – Immigration advocates have strongly condemned the decision by President Joe Biden to institute executive action limiting access to asylum for Caribbean and other migrants at the United States southern border.
Biden’s action takes effect once the seven-day average of people crossing between ports of entry exceeds 2,500. Still, the immigration advocates say the policy, which went effect immediately, will result in the temporary closure of the US southern border to many migrants seeking safety, absent exceptional circumstances.
Many of the migrants crossing the southern border, seeking asylum and refugee statuses, are nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
President and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), Murad Awawdeh, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that “numerous individuals and families will be subject to expulsion, which will force them to return to the possibility of harm.
“President Biden’s reckless executive action is a political stunt that turns our back on our humanitarian obligations and is a stain on our nation,” said Awawdeh, whose organization represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York
“The president continues to bend like a reed in the wind regarding our nation’s commitment to refuge and safety. This executive action will harm many families and individuals and do nothing to advance what this country needs most: an orderly and reformed immigration system that works for all communities to secure lives with dignity, opportunity, and shared welcome,” Awawdeh said.
He said it is not too late for the Biden administration and Congress to provide accurate proposals that invest in safe and legal immigration pathways, address the root causes compelling people to seek refuge, and coordinate with regional governments and civil society to strengthen humanitarian protection systems.
Deputy director of the immigration advocacy group Make the Road New York, Natalia Aristizabal, described Biden’s executive order as “cruel and reckless,” adding that “it fails to provide real solutions for a fair and humane immigration system our country deserves.
“This harmful order would gut our asylum system, resulting in illegally preventing people from seeking safety in the United States. It is cowardly of the Biden administration to cave to anti-immigrant extremists and disregard the legal and moral responsibilities of vulnerable men, women, and children who are seeking safety and protection. History has never looked fondly on those who’ve turned their backs on people seeking refuge.”
Aristizabal called on the Biden administration to “show leadership and stop reverting to the dangerous policies of the previous administration.
In his executive order, Biden said that, due to global conditions, the US has been experiencing substantial migration throughout the Western Hemisphere, including at the US southwest land border.
He said that despite efforts and months of reduced encounter levels following the changes implemented after May 12, 2023, encounter levels have increased significantly, with December 2023 seeing the highest level of encounters between ports of entry in history.
However, Biden said the factors driving the unprecedented movement of people remain and that there is still “a substantial and elevated level of migration that continues to pose significant operational challenges.”
He also said the current situation directly results from the US Congress’s failure to update an immigration and asylum system that is “simply broken and not equipped to meet current needs.
“While my administration has vigorously enforced the law within the constraints imposed by the existing system, the statutory framework put in place by the Congress is outdated,” Biden said.
“For the vast majority of people in immigration proceedings, the current laws make it impossible to grant protection to those who require it quickly and to quickly remove those who do not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States,” he added.
The proclamation is accompanied by an interim final rule from the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security that restricts asylum for those noncitizens.
“These actions will be in effect when the Southern border is overwhelmed, and they will make it easier for immigration officers to quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States,” Biden said.
and then 