Migration Data Point

Tucson

February 22, 3023

Visiting the Mexico border yesterday at Lukeville, Arizona, our border is again at the forefront of my thinking. As if on cue, the article below appeared in today's WSJ.

Describing the proposed rules as similar to those designed by Stephen Miller made me cringe. I'm

no fan of Mister Miller and the fact he is a Blue Devil is only part of the reason (kidding). The real reason is that he is the Devil (not kidding).

The fact that three Democratic senators are already against the proposal makes me cringe, too. Do they have an alternative proposal??

I spend a few hours most weeks reading on the immigration issue. I still have yet to come across a document that adequately addresses the issue to my satisfaction. We all hear the screaming about the historic number of migrants -- what I don't hear is a reasonable, calm statement of the problems and proposed solutions.

Yesterday, as I saw dozens of Border Patrol agents, I wondered what they would tell me they need from Washington. I did not get a chance to ask.

If nothing else, it seems to me we need to have a limit on how many asylum seekers we allow each year through the border crossings. Maybe I'm missing something but no one crossing outside of border crossings should be eligible to ask for asylum.

Hey Republicans and Democrats -- this is not a partisan issue! Get your act together and solve the problem!!

From the WSJ:

Biden Administration Proposes New Limits on Asylum Seekers

Move signals attempt to blunt rush on border after Covid restrictions lift in May

The Biden administration proposed to sharply limit who can qualify for asylum after crossing the border illegally in the U.S., making migrants who move through another country on the way and don’t first apply for asylum in that country ineligible.

The proposed rule, put forward jointly Tuesday by the Homeland Security and Justice departments, is similar to a policy instituted by the Trump administration in 2019, known as the transit ban. It adds to the recent more restrictive actions taken by the current administration to deter migrants from seeking asylum at the southern border.

It comes as the pandemic-era public health policy, Title 42, which allowed officials to rapidly expel asylum-seeking migrants, is set to end May 11 with the expiration of a national emergency for the Covid-19 pandemic. The administration projects that the end of Title 42 could lead to an increase of 11,000 to 13,000 daily encounters at the border without any policy changes, according to the proposed rule. Migrants deemed ineligible for asylum under the proposed rule would be deported.

In January, Customs and Border Protection encountered about 5,000 migrants at and between the ports of entry, a decline from December, when agents and officers encountered roughly 8,100 people a day.

The Title 42 policy was last set to sunset in mid-December until a Supreme Court ruling extended it. Thousands of migrants a day during that time surged across the border into El Paso, Texas. The volume of migrants overwhelmed border agents and local aid groups.

Administration officials said the new asylum rule was an emergency and temporary measure. It would apply to asylum-seeking migrants caught crossing the southern border illegally for two years after it is implemented, following the end of Title 42 and a 30-day comment period on the rule.

The exact date of implementation for the rule hadn’t yet been decided, officials said.

President Biden campaigned against many of the restrictive border policies enforced by former President Donald Trump, but in the last two years, he has maintained or in some cases expanded them.

Officials pushed back Tuesday on comparisons to Mr. Trump’s policy, saying their rule wasn’t a categorical ban on asylum seekers and that the administration had expanded legal pathways for some migrants in conjunction with the proposed restrictions.

They also said the rule would encourage migrants to schedule appointments at the border instead of making the journey by hiring smugglers and trying to sneak across the border.

When the Trump administration implemented a similar policy, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled in the final months of the administration that it violated asylum laws set by Congress. The suit was set to reach the Supreme Court, but the Biden administration ended the case by dropping the policy when Mr. Biden took office.

Some Democrats and immigration advocates have been critical of the administration since January, when officials announced their intent to propose such a rule.

In a joint statement Tuesday, Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez (N.J.), Cory Booker (N.J.), Ben Ray Luján (N.M.) and Alex Padilla (Calif.) called on the administration to drop the proposed rule. “We are deeply disappointed that the administration has chosen to move forward with publishing this proposed rule, which only perpetuates the harmful myth that asylum seekers are a threat to this nation,” they said. “In reality, they are pursuing a legal pathway in the United States.”

In a private meeting last month held over Zoom with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, several lawmakers likened the policies to those of former White House adviser Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda.

Republicans, meanwhile, continue to attack the administration for, in their view, not doing enough to deter migrants. House Republicans, who are now in the majority, have been holding hearings on the administration’s handling of the border.