By Felicia Mello
President Joe Biden’s executive order limiting asylum claims at the U.S.-Mexico border has divided California’s Democrats and led to concerns among immigration advocates that crossings will become more deadly for migrants, Fry reports.
The order, signed Tuesday, suspends most migrants’ right to seek asylum between regular ports of entry whenever border crossings surge above 2,500 per day. That threshold has already been met this year, meaning the measure went into effect immediately, though the American Civil Liberties Union has said it plans to sue to block it.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla blasted President Biden for signing the order, which he said “undermined American values” by abandoning the country’s obligations to provide refuge to people fleeing persecution and violence.
But other California Democrats said the move was necessary at a time when Congress has failed to pass bipartisan immigration reform. Driven by economic and political instability in Central and South America, border crossings between official points of entry reached a record high in December, though they have fallen in recent months.
“The current system is failing both local communities and asylum seekers,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria in a statement supporting Biden. The San Diego region has again become an epicenter of illegal border crossings after years in which traffic had shifted to Arizona and Texas.
Immigration advocates say they worry that an increasing number of migrants will risk their lives by seeking to cross in extremely remote areas to avoid detection. Biden’s order also would impose drastic consequences on asylum seekers who try to enter the U.S. while the ban is in effect — they could be deported within hours and barred from entering the country for five years.
Biden’s order only applies to asylum seekers and does not affect the approximately 150,000 border residents who legally cross each day for work, school and shopping. Those people have also recently faced hourslong wait times to cross which, Fry reports, have crippled local businesses.
Biden is borrowing from Trump’s immigration playbook — the former president also sought to close the border to asylum seekers in 2018, but courts blocked that effort.