The Biden administration is considering a major expansion of an asylum program that originally targeted Venezuelans, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night. Specifically, the program would widen to encompass migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti.
With an eye on decreasing illegal southern border crossings, the program lets migrants from Venezuela apply for asylum from overseas and then fly to the United States. Under the proposal, that privilege would be extended to three more countries.
The news comes on the heels of jarring images from El Paso on Sunday night, as an estimated 1,500 migrants poured across the Rio Grande in a matter of hours. Mostly from Nicaragua, the throng assembled in long lines on the American side to take their turn surrendering to border authorities.
Referring to President Biden, one Nicaraguan man told Reuters, “He is the only president who will help us, we know he will open the door for us.”
BREAKING: A huge migrant caravan of over 1,000 people crossed illegally into El Paso, TX last night, making it the largest single group we have ever seen. The city of El Paso reports Border Patrol now has over 5,000 in custody & has released hundreds to city streets. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/ewUQX757Lt
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 12, 2022
U.S. authorities have posted a record-high 2 million arrests at the border over the past year, and the numbers are straining both government and private resources along the frontier.
My latest dispatch from El Paso: It’s not LA, Seattle, or any other city with a homeless problem. Released migrants are staying and sleeping on the cold streets of El Paso because there is no room at local shelters due to the spike in illegal crossings: https://t.co/xNClxaQJjn pic.twitter.com/xBfQvROotH
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) December 13, 2022
Even if the proposed asylum-policy expansion manages to put a dent in illegal border crossings, the ease of applying from home would conceivably cause a big spike in the total number of asylum-seekers.
Border officials are bracing for the Dec. 21 expiration of Title 42, a Covid-19-era Trump policy that lets the Border Patrol summarily turn away migrants at the border — including those who were seeking asylum. The policy’s purported intent was to prevent transmission of the virus. In November, a federal judge ruled the policy is illegal.
That means the brisk business at the border is about to surge even higher. While considering it an unlikely worst-case scenario, officials are now planning for 20,000 migrants a day crossing into the country after Title 42 vanishes on Dec. 21.
The Journal reports that the administration is reportedly debating potential immigration deterrence measures. One proposal: Restoring a Trump policy — the “transit ban” — that rejected asylum requests from migrants who passed through another country en route to the U.S. without asking that other country for asylum first.
Meanwhile, Venezuela isn’t accepting its citizens who are deported from the United States. Biden administration officials are talking to their Mexican counterparts, with hopes the country will keep taking such deportees off America’s hands.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 12/14/2022 – 18:00
