WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday said it would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, a major expansion of an existing effort to stop Venezuelans attempting to enter the U.S.
Instead, the administration will accept 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offer the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks. These four affected nations are among those for whom migrant border crossings have risen most sharply, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries.
“Do not, do not just show up at the border,” Biden said Thursday. “Stay where you are and apply legally from there.”
It was Biden’s boldest move yet to confront spiraling arrivals at the U.S. border with Mexico, a major change to immigration rules that will stand even if the U.S. Supreme Court ends a Trump-era public health law that allows American authorities to turn away asylum seekers.
The president has seen the numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border rise dramatically during his two years in office; there were more than 2.38 million stops during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the first time the number cracked 2 million. The administration has struggled to clamp down on crossings, reluctant to take hard-line measures that would resemble those of the Trump administration.
That’s resulted in relentless criticism from Republicans who say the Democratic president is ineffective on border security, and the newly minted Republican House majority has promised congressional investigations.
The new policy could result in 360,000 people from these four nations lawfully entering the U.S. in a year, a huge number. But currently, far more people from those countries are attempting to cross into the U.S. on foot, by boat or swimming. Migrants from those four countries were stopped 82,286 times in November alone.
“This new process is orderly,” Biden said. “It’s safe and humane, and it works.”
Biden planned a trip to El Paso, Texas, this weekend, his first trip to the southern border as president, before a planned trip to Mexico City to meet with North American leaders on Monday.
Mexico has agreed to accept each month from the four countries up to 30,000 migrants who attempt to walk or swim across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the White House.
