Observers, including Spanish language media, continue to blast President Biden’s new asylum ban, emphasizing how it is reminiscent of the Trump/Stephen Miller cruel and chaotic policy.
Washington, DC – Observers continue to blast President Biden’s new asylum ban, emphasizing how it is reminiscent of Trump/Stephen Miller cruel and chaotic policy.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“Cruel, chaotic, and Trumpian are three regrettable adjectives that the Biden administration will own if they proceed with the ill advised asylum ban. It’s a self-inflicted setback that has rightfully been condemned by a range of observers as a disturbing echo of Trump cruelty and chaos. Not only is it wrong on the policy, but it gets the politics wrong – witness how the strong criticism in prominent Spanish language media threatens to alienate Latino voters animated by opposition to Trump and Trump-like policies as just one example. This is not a savvy move by a Democratic candidate seeking a motivated base to power reelection.”
Among the key voices who have been emphasizing these themes:
Spanish language media emphasizes “cruelty” of asylum ban:
- Univision Noticias catalogs furor over the policy in (translated by America’s Voice), ““Cruel”, “illegal”, “immoral”, “disappointment”… rain of criticism of Biden’s new asylum immigration policy at the border”: “The Biden government defends its new strategy by ensuring that it is a temporary measure to order transit at the border, favor legal immigration and curb undocumented immigration. But critics, including members of the Democratic Party, argue that the move violates the law, is wrong and constitutes a “Trump-style” threat, when he tried to do the same under his disputed “zero tolerance” policy rejected by the courts of justice.”
- La Opinión cites immigration advocates in a piece titled (translated), “Critics say Biden’s asylum proposal would cause ‘unnecessary suffering’”: “A group of immigration advocates have sharply criticized the Biden administration after it announced a proposal that would disqualify certain immigrants from U.S. asylum and allow the government to expedite their deportation. The proposal, which has been compared to the one the Trump administration tried to implement, but was stopped in the Senate, has provoked the fury of immigration advocates, such as Marisa Limón Garza, executive director of the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, who assured that the measure will only cause ‘human suffering.’”
- Also see the CNN en Español story (translated), “Biden admin advances new asylum restrictions, mirroring Trump politics”: “The 153-page new regulation, which could affect tens of thousands of people, is part of a mosaic of policies put in place by the administration to manage the border. It’s one of the actions that has pitted Biden against his own allies, who argue that the administration’s approach is too strict and is based on Trump-era policies.”
On Chaos:
- A new memo from The Immigration Hub emphasizes that the new asylum ban is not just cruel, but “will ultimately create chaos and disorder at the border.” As they write: “The Biden administration is setting itself up to face a chaotic border. This proposed rule will gut asylum, put lives at risk, and jeopardize President Biden’s vision for a functioning immigration system. Resourcing and reforming asylum is necessary; undermining America’s core commitment to offer asylum and safety to those fleeing persecution and violence is not.”
- Dara Lind writes for Immigration Impact, “How To Seek Asylum (Under Biden’s Proposed Asylum Transit Ban), In 12 Not-At-All-Easy Steps,”: underscoring the dizzying complexity of the policy and noting that to “understand why those ‘lawful pathways’ don’t really exist for many people, and why the process they’ll be shunted into instead is tantamount to a near-complete asylum ban, you have to see how the process is intended to work and how it interacts with systems on the ground … People will be forced to navigate this process at the end of a grueling journey to the United States, with potentially lethal danger awaiting them at home if they fail.”
Trumpian:
- The Associated Press quotes Melissa Crow, a lawyer with the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, who called the proposal a ‘mashup’ of two things Trump tried: “barring people from entering the country between ports of entry and making migrants ineligible for asylum if they passed through another country before getting to the U.S. and didn’t apply for protection there.”
- See additional headlines, such as Vox, “How Biden came to embrace Trumpian border policies,” and “Politico Biden to replace Trump migration policy with Trump-esque asylum policy” and The Guardian, “Biden unveils Trump-style plan to deter asylum seekers at Mexico border.”
