The Biden administration’s new border policy makes it easier for migrants to circumvent Title 42, a major Trump-era public health order used for expulsions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, by exempting many from expulsion.
President Joe Biden announced Jan. 5 an expanded legal pathway for migrants that would otherwise be expelled under Title 42 so long as they can prove they have a legitimate need for protection. He recently began expelling Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians, while providing a legal pathway if they have a U.S. sponsor and apply via a phone application known as “CBP [Customs and Border Protection] One.” (RELATED: ‘Slap In The Face’: Border Enforcement Will Go Back To ‘Normal’ Now That Biden’s Visit Is Over, Officials Say)
The Biden administration previously attempted to end Title 42, but the Supreme Court decided on Dec. 27 to keep it in place for the time being after Republican states intervened.
The new policy allows for migrants to gain entry if they meet one or all of the admission criteria that include having a mental illness, a physical illness, a disability, carrying a pregnancy and/or are lacking safe shelter in Mexico, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s review of the application process in the mobile app. It also allows those who are under the age of 21 or are over the age of 70 and/or those who have been harmed or threatened while in Mexico to apply.
“Just one more step by the Biden administration to undermine our existing immigration laws and open our borders. How would we ever validate someone’s claim that they were ‘threatened’ or didn’t have ‘safe housing’ in Mexico?,” former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott told the DCNF Thursday of the policy exceptions.
The port of entry makes the final decision on whether to grant the migrant entry for a period of two years, according to the White House. The Biden administration will allow for 30,000 migrants each month from the four applicable countries to enter as long as they have a sponsor in the U.S. and pass a background check.
Screenshot//Daily Caller News Foundation
Before the Biden administration implemented the new policy, exceptions to Title 42 were solely granted to those who could present a fear claim, according to the American Immigration Council. Just 272 people were granted a Title 42 exemption and permitted to seek asylum between March 2020 and September 2021.
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) Communications and Government Relations Director RJ Hauman calls the new process “one of the most jaw-dropping examples of the Biden administration’s eagerness to let everyone in under the veil of legitimacy,” he said in a statement to the DCNF.
“Instead of trying to stop an unprecedented flow of migrants, they’re encouraging even more fraudulent asylum claims, while finding innovative ways to process them en masse,” Hauman said.
Biden recently said during a visit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Tuesday in Mexico City that he’d like to make it easier for migrants to get to the U.S. amid record surges at the southern border. In fiscal year 2022, CBP encountered more than 2.3 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We’re trying to make it easier for people to get here, opening up the capacity to get here, but not have them go through that godawful process,” Biden said.
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