Washington.- In his last debate with Donald J. Trump on October 22, 2022, Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was running at the time, criticized his rival for radically undermining America’s decades-long tradition of welcoming people seeking asylum at the country’s borders.
“This is the first president in the history of the United States who has established that anyone who requests asylum has to do so in another country,” Biden said, referring to one of hundreds of immigration policies aimed at closing the border.
Although this Thursday, the Biden administration is expected to impose a very similar restriction on asylum seekers by quickly rejecting the claims of most people who cross the border but do not first seek refuge in Mexico.
Like Trump’s policy, the new strategy is likely to result in many migrants being deported in a fast-track process that critics say deprives them of due process.
After nearly two and a half years in office, Biden has struggled to come up with an immigration strategy that will satisfy critics on the right and left.
In some cases, he has adopted the use of aggressive measures like his predecessor to prevent the surge of migrants along the southern border.
The president has taken some steps to welcome migrants and end what he once called “the moral and national shame” of Trump’s immigration policies.
However, waves of migrants displaced by political and economic turmoil in their countries — the GOP has used such images to further the narrative that the border is out of control — have changed Biden’s immigration policies in ways few of his allies would have imagined when he ran for president.
