Rivals Gather and Play Along, If Only Briefly. CAPTION: President-elect Donald Trump, on the left, extends his hand to President Joe Biden during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. The realm of politics always demands a degree of theatrics. Few instances can match the one witnessed Wednesday morning at the White House, where Biden and Trump temporarily feigned mutual admiration and respect — lasting an impressive 29 seconds. CREDIT: (Doug Mills/The New York Times)
By HAMED ALEAZIZ
In the past year, President-elect Donald Trump has been vocally critical of the Biden administration’s immigration stance, claiming it has left the border unprotected and jeopardized national security.
Nevertheless, measures implemented by President Joe Biden over the past year, including a comprehensive asylum prohibition and more efficient deportation processes, may facilitate Trump’s pledge to close the border and swiftly deport migrants.
It is important to note that Biden’s immigration outlook diverges significantly from Trump’s. While the White House has indeed enacted tougher regulations at the border, it has also promoted legal avenues for entry and provided temporary legal status to migrants hailing from specific distressed nations.
After asserting a commitment to a more compassionate immigration policy upon taking office in 2021, Biden was met with a global increase in migration that strained the southern U.S. border. By the end of his second year, yearly border arrests surpassed 2 million.
As disorganized scenes unfolded with migrants gathering at the border, Republicans like Trump contended that Democrats were failing to govern and safeguard U.S. cities, calling for stricter immigration measures. Republican governors such as Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida transported thousands of migrants via bus and plane to Democratic-controlled northern cities as a means of spotlighting the border predicament.
Facing immense political pressure, Biden ultimately implemented several strategies that signified a significant shift in U.S. immigration policy.
With an executive order in June, Biden curtailed the ability of migrants to pursue asylum at the border, marking the most stringent border policy enacted by any recent Democratic president.
A significant aspect of the new policy is that migrants, when screened at the border, are no longer consistently asked if they harbor fears of returning to their home countries. If they do not voice such fears independently, they are promptly processed for removal. Advocates for migrants assert that a disproportionate number of individuals who could qualify for asylum are being hastily turned away.
Furthermore, the U.S. has accelerated deportations to nations beyond Mexico to unprecedented levels, expanded facilities to detain migrants close to the border, and initiated quicker removals by deporting asylum-seekers directly from Border Patrol custody.
These actions have led to a decline in border numbers to levels not experienced in several years.
“All of these measures will be operational when Trump assumes office,” remarked Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.
Adam Isacson, focusing on border security at the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization, noted that nearly 45,000 of the 54,000 migrants who crossed in September had either been deported or detained.
“That certainly lays the groundwork for Trump,” he emphasized, highlighting that only 9,145 individuals were released into the country in September while awaiting immigration hearings.
He continued: “Thus, it won’t require extensive effort for Trump to bring it down to nearly zero, especially if they discover ways to detain individuals from remote and difficult-to-deport nations.”
Trump has vowed to seal the border immediately upon taking office. He has promised a revival of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, compelling migrants to remain in Mexico until their U.S. cases are resolved. This is likely one of his major strategies for border shutdown, although implementing that policy may involve time and negotiations.
In the interim, he can utilize the framework established by the Biden administration.
The administration also unveiled plans in July to assist Panama in deporting migrants who illegally cross its borders, aiming to reduce migration aimed at the U.S. border.
“This assistance aims to mitigate the exceptional irregular migration through the Darien region, through which over 520,000 migrants passed in 2023,” stated the State Department at the time.
The Biden administration is also set to issue a regulation making it easier for asylum officers to identify individuals ineligible for protection, including those with serious criminal histories, facilitating their swift removal from the country.
To enhance legal immigration opportunities, the administration encourages migrants to utilize a mobile application to schedule appointments with Border Patrol and present their asylum claims. It has also initiated a program that permits individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. and reside for two years if they have a financial sponsor.
These initiatives have been major targets for Trump, who has vowed to reverse them immediately.
“All of the restrictions imposed by the Biden administration provide them a foundation significantly beyond what they had in 2016,” stated Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin and a former State Department official under Biden.
Leutert elaborated that, in contrast to 2017, there are now more single adults and families arriving from various regions worldwide.
“Thus, it may very well be that there are additional aspects that the Trump administration will seek to promptly reverse (the legal pathways) and likewise more that they might wish to collaborate on (the restrictions),” she remarked in a text message.
