Instead of condemning Biden’s new immigration asylum policy, Rep. Scholten justifies it, then blames Republicans

On Tuesday, President Biden announced new restrictions on immigrants seeking asylum in the US. As Biden stood near the border, along with Governor’s of border states, he said:

Today, I’m announcing actions to bar migrants who cross our southern border unlawfully from receiving asylum.  Migrants will be restricted from receiving asylum at our southern border unless they seek it after entering through an established lawful process. 

And those who seek — come to the United States legally — for example, by making an appointment and coming to a port of entry — asylum will still be available to them — still available.  But if an individual chooses not to use our legal pathways, if they choose to come without permission and against the law, they’ll be restricted from receiving asylum and staying in the United States.  

This action will help us to gain control of our border, restore order to the process. 

What most news agencies have not reported or discussed, is that this new policy that Biden has implemented will further criminalize immigrants and cause more of them to die. 

Biden is invoking Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which was previously used by former President Donald Trump, which sparked numerous legal challenges. In fact, the deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, Lee Gelernt, said of Biden’s restrictive asylum policy: “This is not a ‘win’—it’s a monstrosity. Asylum is a human right.”

Demonstrating her standard party loyalty, Rep. Scholten released a statement – see below – which not only justified Biden’s repressive asylum policy, the Congresswoman then blamed the failure to adopt a more comprehensive immigration policy. 

The fact of the matter is that after the 2020 Presidential victory of Biden, along with gaining control of the US House for the next two years, the Democratic Party failed to adopt a progressive and justice immigration policy. When Rep. Scholten was elected, the Republicans had a majority in the US House. Scholten can blame the Republicans all she wants, but her Party and her President will be presiding over more deportations and more undocumented immigrants in cages, similar to what happened with former Presidents Trump and Obama. 

The bipartisan immigration legislation that Rep. Scholten is referring to is the Dignity Act, which GRIID has previously critiqued. The Dignity Act has some positive elements to it, but it also has an emphasis on enforcement, which Scholten spoke to. She said, “Crossings have increased, but so has enforcement. Border agents do have adequate technology resources, which means more enforcement.” Rep. Scholten discussed the need to enforce the existing US immigration laws, but failed to bring up the issue of why so many people are fleeing Mexico and Central American, to come to the US. 

Scholten also talked about having bipartisan support for the Dignity Act, specifically with Rep; Salas from Florida. However, the Dignity Act is not Comprehensive Immigration Reform, nor does it address more structural elements of root causes of immigration, such as the US role in supporting military and trade policies in Latin America that have destabilized most of the region, along with the fact that more and more people are being displaced and forced to flee their homelands because of Climate Change. (See Todd Miller’s excellent book, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security.) 

For a more robust critique of Biden’s new asylum policy, listen to journalist John Washington who was recently interviewed on Democracy Now! Or you can read his latest book, The Case for Open Borders, published by Haymarket Books.

John Washington on Democracy Now! – “But what we do know is that we see again that President Biden has been willing to turn his back to a lot of the campaign promises, a lot of the initial policies that he tried to put forward, and is not upholding asylum or not engaging in the effort to restore asylum as he promised. And we know that the effects are going to be excruciating and likely deadly on people who are trying to seek asylum and who are some of the most vulnerable people in the world right now.”