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Biden Announces Major Crackdown on Illegal Border Crossings

President Biden, who is under pressure to confront a surge in migration at the border, said he would visit El Paso on Sunday.

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President Biden announced new immigration measures to crackdown on illegal border crossings at the Southern border with Mexico.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Follow our live coverage of Biden’s visit to Mexico to meet North American leaders.

WASHINGTON — President Biden on Thursday announced a far-reaching crackdown on people who seek refuge at the border with Mexico, dramatically expanding restrictions on asylum in the most aggressive effort of his administration to discourage migrants from crossing into the United States.

In remarks at the White House that drew immediate condemnation from human rights organizations, Mr. Biden said his administration would deny people from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti the chance to apply for asylum if they cross the Mexican border without authorization between official ports of entry.

He said people from those countries, who are among the many tens of thousands of migrants who try to cross the border every month, would be swiftly returned to Mexico instead.

“Today, my administration is taking several steps to stiffen enforcement for those who try to come without a legal right to stay,” Mr. Biden said in remarks at the White House, days before a two-day summit meeting in Mexico City.

“My message is this,” he said. “If you’re trying to leave Cuba, Nicaragua or Haiti, or have agreed to begin a journey to America, do not, do not just show up at the border.”

In a concession designed to offset the humanitarian impact of the new restrictions, Mr. Biden said that as many as 30,000 people per month from the four countries would be given the chance to migrate legally to the United States if they have the means to afford a plane ticket, get a sponsor, download an app, pass a background check and meet other requirements.

The changes reflect a determination by Mr. Biden and his advisers to ratchet up enforcement of existing immigration laws to confront record-breaking surges of migration at the southern border. The president’s announcement comes after months of fierce debate inside the West Wing over whether to embrace tough border measures first imposed by former President Donald J. Trump.

In his remarks, Mr. Biden described the overall approach as very different from his predecessor and said the new policy was intended to expand opportunities for migrants looking to escape danger and seek better opportunities in America.

But immigration advocates denounced the new enforcement changes as loudly as they had attacked some of the former president’s proposals. In a torrent of statements, they accused the Biden administration of including vast new restrictions on the right to claim asylum for people escaping dangers in their home countries.

“This benefit will exclude migrants fleeing violence and persecution who do not have the ability or economic means to qualify,” said Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey. He called the new policies “merely an attempt to replace our asylum laws, and thousands of asylum seekers waiting to present their cases will be hurt as a result.”

Eleanor Acer, the director of the refugee protection program at Human Rights First, called the new policies “a humanitarian disgrace” and said the president should not be adding restrictions on people who seek refuge in the United States.

“The Biden administration should be taking steps to restore asylum law at ports of entry,” Ms. Acer said, “not doubling down on cruel and counterproductive policies from the Trump playbook.”

The surge in migration has become an increasingly difficult political problem for Mr. Biden. House Republicans have promised to begin investigations into the administration’s handling of the border and to weigh impeachment proceedings against Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, once they elect a leader.

Mr. Biden said he would make his first trip as president to the border on Sunday with a trip to El Paso, where many migrants have been sleeping on sidewalks. The mayor declared a state of emergency last month and call for the federal government to help alleviate the pressure on resources.

Mr. Biden said he would announce new funding to help communities deal with the effects of the migration increase.

“I know that migration is putting a real strain on the borders and border communities,” Mr. Biden said, adding that “our problems at the border didn’t arise overnight, and they are not going to be solved overnight. It’s a difficult problem.”

Mr. Biden acknowledged that the new policies fall far short of a complete overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, which he proposed to Congress on the day he took office. He lashed out at Republicans for refusing to even consider that proposal.

“If the most extreme Republicans continue to demagogue this issue and reject solutions,” the president said, “I’m left with only one choice: act on my own, do as much as I can on my own to try to change the atmosphere.”

Officials have said that most of the recent migrants from Central and South America trying to cross through Mexico to reach the United States are from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua.

Migrants from those countries who seek to travel to the United States by passing through Mexico would be automatically ineligible for the new program. And those who try to cross into the United States will be more quickly targeted for removal to Mexico, which has agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants each month from the four countries.

In a briefing, Mr. Mayorkas told reporters that the program would drastically lessen the need for people from the four countries to make the dangerous journey across the U.S.-Mexico border. An earlier program that applied only to Venezuelans significantly reduced the number of migrants from that country at the border.

“We again call on Congress to legislate, to provide sufficient resources to manage the increased encounters at the border and to fix the immigration system everyone agrees is terribly broken,” Mr. Mayorkas said. “Absent congressional action, we will do what we can using the authorities and resources available to us to manage the border in a safe, orderly and humane manner.”

ImageA group of migrants near a border fence.
Migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. People who seek to travel to the United States by passing through Mexico would be automatically ineligible for the new program.Credit...Paul Ratje for The New York Times

But it is unclear how many of the people from the four countries will be able or willing to take advantage of the new program. In November, more than 82,000 migrants from those four countries crossed into the country illegally. If crossings continue in similar numbers and Mexico only accepts 30,000 asylum seekers a month in the new program, the United States will have to continue to let thousands stay in the country temporarily.

Administration officials said that Mr. Biden would also triple the number of refugees that the United States accepts each year from the Western Hemisphere to 20,000. The refugee program is a separate way for people who are fleeing persecution to apply to come to the United States legally.

For now, officials said border agents would continue to quickly expel migrants from the four countries under an order put in place during the coronavirus pandemic, using legal authority granted by Title 42. The Supreme Court is currently considering a challenge by Republican-led states to the administration’s plan to stop enforcing the health order.

But Mr. Biden made clear that he intends for the tougher enforcement on migrants from the four countries to remain in place even if the court allows the administration to end the use of Title 42. In that case, border officials will rely on other laws to quickly expel migrants.

Immigrant rights advocates say those laws, including one known as expedited removal, deny people their rights to due process and are used as a way to prevent them from winning legitimate claims for asylum, which are guaranteed by U.S. and international law.

The Biden administration is also embracing a restrictive policy developed under Mr. Trump, in which migrants who travel through a third country, such as Mexico, can be denied asylum in the United States because they have not applied for asylum in another country first.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday that officials would propose a rule that would make migrants ineligible for asylum if they “fail to seek protection in a country through which they traveled on their way to the United States.” Migrants who violate the rule would be barred from seeking legal entry to the United States for five years. The new rule would require public hearings and a monthslong review process, officials said.

Despite the new measures, Mr. Biden also drew criticism from hard-line Republicans. Stephen Miller, the architect of Mr. Trump’s assault on immigration, said the president’s enforcement announcements would still allow thousands of migrants to be released into the United States while their asylum cases were heard.

“Biden has a simple, unyielding goal,” Mr. Miller said. “His goal is to increase the foreign-born population of the United States as speedily as possible from all the nations of the world, consequences for Americans be damned.”

Yuri Canton, a bus driver from Havana, said new policies would not discourage desperate people from trying to cross the border.

“Nothing is going to stop Cubans, not even two more walls, because the situation in Cuba is extremely precarious,” said Mr. Canton, 44, who left behind a wife and two children, ages 10 and 8, in Cuba to make the journey to America. He said he could not feed his family with the wages he earned.

Speaking from a shelter in Tucson, Ariz., Mr. Canton said he would try to make it to West Palm Beach in Florida.

“All the Cubans are leaving,” he said, “and we will keep leaving.”

Michael D. Shear is a veteran White House correspondent and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who was a member of team that won the Public Service Medal for Covid coverage in 2020. He is the co-author of “Border Wars: Inside Trump's Assault on Immigration.” More about Michael D. Shear

Eileen Sullivan is a Washington correspondent covering the Department of Homeland Security. Previously, she worked at the Associated Press where she won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. More about Eileen Sullivan

Miriam Jordan reports from the grassroots perspective on immigrants and their impact on the demographics, society and economy of the United States. Before joining The Times, she covered immigration at the Wall Street Journal and was a correspondent in Brazil, India, Hong Kong and Israel. More about Miriam Jordan

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: Biden Announces New Crackdown on Migrants Crossing at the Border. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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