'Another Trump policy': Immigration activists up in arms over Biden's enhanced border measures

WASHINGTON (TND) — While addressing the nation Thursday about the historical influx of migrants at the southern border, President Joe Biden indicated his intent to stiffen security measures there. The plan, which includes expanded utilization of Title 42 and the implementation of limits on the number of migrants and asylum seekers who can enter the U.S. from certain countries, did not sit well with several pro-immigration advocacy groups who argue the Biden administration is acting too much like the Trump administration. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) insisted the Biden administration’s new policies “tie” it to the “poisonous anti-immigration policies of the Trump era.” Similarly, the National Immigrant Justice Center argued the Biden administration is “on a dangerous path to replicate some of the worst aspects of the Trump administration’s assaults on the right to asylum.” Another immigration advocacy group, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), slammed the move as well, asserting that capping the number of migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti – a program that was already in place for Venezuelans – and forcing them to apply for asylum in the countries they originate from “sounds like another Trump policy.” “This knee-jerk expansion of Title 42 will put more lives in grave danger,” the ACLU’s director of border strategies, Jonathan Blazer, said following Biden’s announcement of the new border policies. “Let’s be clear: nothing requires the administration to expand Title 42 while it claims to be preparing for its ending. There is simply no reason why the benefits of a new parole program for Cubans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians must be conditioned on the expansion of dangerous expulsions.” Blazer pointed to Biden’s past condemnation of Trump’s policies toward immigrants and asylum seekers, noting he made a campaign promise to the American people that he would reverse them. “His commitments to people seeking safety will ring utterly hollow if he moves forward in substituting one illegal anti-asylum Trump policy for another.” AILA President Jeremy McKinney also likened the policies to Trump, insisting the “unavoidable truth” was that the Biden administration's continued use and expansion of Title 42 “is greatly eroding the United States’ commitment to protecting asylum seekers.” “Moreover, the administration indicated a new proposed rule that sounds like another Trump policy, the transit ban, which will block asylum by requiring people to first apply in countries that they traveled through,” McKinney continued in his criticism. “The new parole program should be implemented in addition to access to asylum at the southern border and not erode access to asylum.” During a press conference following President Biden's remark Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas insisted that with or without Title 42, the border remains "closed." "We will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws in a safe, orderly, and humane manner," Mayorkas said Thursday. "Individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States will be subject to prompt expulsion under Title 42 or removal under Title 8. We will comply with the court orders that require us to continue enforcing the Title 42 order, and we will also use this time to enhance and increase our use of expedited removal under Title 8 where permitted to do so." Mayorkas concluded that the new measures are "concrete" steps the Biden administration can take to enhance border security while Title 42, which the courts have restricted the Biden administration from doing away with, is still in place. Additionally, the new measures, according to Mayorkas, include steps the administration "will build on and extend to regular Title 8 processes once the Title 42 order is lifted." For more information, visit us at http://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/index.html.