June 4 (UPI) — The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a new executive action on immigration that will bar asylum to migrants who cross the southern border unlawfully.
An average of no more than 2,500 migrants who unlawfully cross the U.S. southern border per day potentially will be eligible for asylum, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday.
“These actions will be in effect when high levels of encounters at the southern border exceed our ability to deliver timely consequences,” the White House announced online.
The policy change “will make it easier for immigration officers to remove those without a lawful basis to remain and reduce the burden on our border patrol agents,” the statement reads.
Biden’s executive order suspends entry of non-citizens who illegally cross the southern border and makes it easier to remove those who cross when the southern border is “overwhelmed” and to remove respective migrants who “do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.”
Biden defines an unlawful crossing as one that occurs “between ports of entry” at the southern border.
The 2,500 figure is the daily average over a seven-day period. The new policy won’t apply when the daily average over seven days is less than 2,500.
The executive order limiting the unlawful daily crossings to an average of 2,500 “will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border between ports of entry is low enough for America’s system to safely and effectively manage border operations.”
Humanitarian exceptions will be made, including for unaccompanied children and victims of trafficking, officials said.
“We are constantly and will continuously look at all options to try and really deal with the immigration system, a system that’s been broken for decades,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
The White House also announced new actions designed to quickly resolve immigration cases.
The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security have launched a “recent arrivals docket” that applies to migrants who illegally crossed the southern border between designated ports of entry.
The recent arrivals docket makes the removal process faster for those who don’t have a legal basis to remain in the United States while protecting those who do.
The Department of State also imposed visa restrictions on several Colombian transportation company executives whose companies profit by transporting migrants to the United States via sea routes.
The State Department also restricted the visas of more than 250 Nicaraguan government officials, private citizens and their immediate family members for supporting the Ortega-Murillo regime that sells transit visas to migrants heading to the U.S. southern border.
Biden’s executive order comes a day after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials reported rising injuries and fatalities among migrants due to heat and dehydration as summer approaches and temperatures recently topped 100 degrees in the El Paso, Texas, sector.
Border Patrol agents responded to several emergencies involving migrants suffering from “severe heat related illnesses,” which claimed four lives over the past weekend.
The executive actions come as Biden seeks to bolster his re-election chances in the Nov. 5 general election.
A running polling average shows 62.8% of registered or likely voters surveyed disapprove of Biden’s handling of immigration versus 33.4% who approve, for a spread of 29.4%, according to Real Clear Polling.
