News/Commentary

Biden allegedly finalizes 11th hour Trump-style policy to block illegal immigrants, but there’s a twist

May 10, 2023 | | Print Article

In what has the look and feel of propaganda to fend off horrific optics as thousands stream across the border with the end of Title 42 looming, President Biden is rumored to have finalized Trump-style plans to stop non-Mexican illegal immigrants from entering the United States.

(Video Credit: CBS News)

CBS News is reporting at the eleventh hour that Biden is set to instill laws almost identical to ones put in place by former President Trump but with a twist. They only apply to non-Mexicans and even then it is entirely plausible they won’t be implemented as claimed given the left’s track record on the issue.

According to the Daily Mail, the Border Patrol is now seeing an average of 8,700 illegal immigrant apprehensions a day. That’s up from 5,200 in March.

CBS News claims that the reversal in stance appears to be in response to images of thousands of illegal immigrants swarming across the border just before Title 42 is set to expire. The timing of the move seems contrived.

Videos have surfaced showing hundreds of migrants crossing the Rio Grande along the Mexican border at Matamoros which neighbors Brownsville, Texas. Every optic you see now is incredibly bad for the Biden administration.

The alleged sweeping new regulations will reportedly deny asylum to many of those crossing the border. The Daily Mail is claiming that the “administration aims to quickly screen migrants for asylum under the new standard and, if they fail, deport them right away.” The assertion that illegal immigrants could face criminal proceedings as well is being floated out there.

Those who are unable to prove their eligibility to be exempt under the new rules will be allegedly deported back to Mexico or their home countries and receive a five-year ban from the US.

Amid that claim, the fact that there is not enough manpower on the border to carry out the measure is being brought up. As asylum officers are being trained on the spot, some staffers are objecting to the last-minute rollout of the regulations and others are carping that it undercuts access to asylum services, three sources familiar with the matter claim, according to the Daily Mail.

And, to many, it all looks like performative politics to placate the masses.

“People are livid,” one anonymous Department of Homeland Security official asserted.

The regulations are certain to face legal challenges just as Trump’s did if they are put into place. The media is painting it as a change in direction for Biden.

The new rules ostensibly presume illegal immigrants are ineligible for asylum if they are unable to demonstrate that they previously sought protection in a third country. That would disqualify most non-Mexican migrants seeking asylum. Unaccompanied children would be exempt from the rules.

CBS reports that according to documents it has obtained, only migrants with “exceptionally compelling circumstances” will be able to clear the stricter criteria. That includes illegal immigrants with acute medical emergencies, those facing imminent and extreme threats in Mexico, and victims of human trafficking.

Todd Bensman from the Fellow-Center for Immigration Studies released videos on Tuesday that show men, women, and children lining up to cross the Rio Grande on the Mexican side of the border. When they finally get across to the other side, barbed wire fencing has been cut away allowing the migrants onto US soil.

Mexican border patrol agents don’t even try to stop the migrants from making the journey across the river. There appears to be little to no deterrent on the US side either to stop the ongoing invasion.

Biden admitted that the border is “going to be chaotic” for a while on Tuesday. That seems to be the understatement of the century.

“It remains to be seen,” Biden remarked when asked about the end of Title 42 by reporters. “It’s going to be chaotic for a while.”

The president went on to claim that he spent over an hour with Mexican President Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday and they are both “doing all we can.” By all accounts, that is demonstrably not true.

Biden lavished Mexico with praise over its so-called “overwhelming cooperation.” He also crowed about setting up asylum processing centers in Central American countries.

Arizona’s Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs raised the alarm on Monday about the Biden administration’s preparations for the end of Title 42, claiming at a press conference that Biden has not given an “adequate response” to her letters outlining actions needed in her border state.

Hobbs flatly asserted that she expects the catastrophe on the border to get “worse” if nothing is done to help once Title 42 expires.

“As of today, we have not received an adequate response,” Hobbs told reporters concerning letters sent to Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “We will continue to relentlessly pressure the federal government until we truly get the resources we need to manage the expected influx.”

“While we are prepared to take state action in any way we can, we cannot manage this influx alone,” Hobbs declared. “Without much more robust action from the federal government, the current situation will only get worse.”

“It is a profound shift for a Democratic president to implement a new ban on asylum-seekers,” Andrea Flores, who served as a White House border official during the first year of the Biden administration, stated. “It’s evidence that the past decade of far-right attacks on black and brown asylum seekers have significantly weakened the Democratic Party’s commitment to providing refuge to people fleeing persecution and torture.”

The American Civil Liberties Union, which convinced federal courts to block the Trump administration’s “transit ban” on asylum, has vowed to file a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s rule.

“We will sue as we did under Trump,” Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s top immigration lawyer, told CBS News on Tuesday. “The core illegality is the same.”

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