Democratic discontent over the chaotic border grew Wednesday, with a rising party star accusing President Biden of failing to move quickly enough to head off the surge of illegal crossings.
Rep. Collin Allred, who made waves last week by announcing he would challenge Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, said Texas towns are “in danger of being overwhelmed” and said the crisis “never should have come to this point.”
Biden officials, meanwhile, sought to regain control of the narrative by announcing that the first 550 new military troops had been deployed to the border. They also finalized a regulation to erect hurdles for asylum-seekers, hoping to reduce the lure of some of the thousands surging into the U.S. each day.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced an advertising campaign urging would-be immigrants to apply from home rather than heading to the border.
On Thursday, the administration loses its most crucial border tool: the Title 42 expulsion authority allowing officials to turn back some illegal immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.
Migrants waiting to rush the border have massed in Mexico. Some aren’t even waiting. The Border Patrol said it arrested roughly 9,000 illegal crossers per day over the weekend, or more than twice the average arrested just weeks ago.
Customs and Border Protection detention facilities were overflowing, and officials were plotting how to catch and release the newcomers.
Against those headwinds, Mr. Mayorkas pleaded for patience.
“Our plan will deliver results, but it will take time for those results to be fully realized,” he said.
That was too little, too late for a growing number of critics, including Mr. Allred.
He said the troop deployments and plans to open welcome centers in Latin America were good news, but they don’t do much to solve what Texas is dealing with now.
“These initiatives are a beginning, not a fix,” he said.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, another Democrat, chided the administration this week for lacking an “adequate response.” She said “more robust action” is needed.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the administration “had two years to prepare for this and did not do so.”
“There will be a humanitarian crisis because we are not prepared,” she said in an interview with CBS.
Mr. Mayorkas has repeatedly said that he is prepared for the end of Title 42 and has had plans for a year.
The rush of last-minute announcements undercut those assurances.
The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department said Wednesday that they plan to open more than 100 welcome centers in Latin America to encourage migrants to schedule border crossings rather than show up and cross on their own with the help of smugglers. Yet none of the centers is open.
The administration also announced that it would send 1,500 more active-duty military personnel to the border to alleviate pressure on border agents and officers, but most of the troops have not arrived.
Administration officials also rushed to train asylum officers on the rule they finalized that would erect hurdles for new arrivals who want to claim asylum.
The regulation, finalized by Homeland Security and the Justice Department, would create a presumption against asylum for migrants who left their homes and traveled through other countries to reach the U.S.
The reasoning is that if they were true refugees, they would have stopped in the first safe country they reached. By continuing to the U.S., they demonstrated that they were more akin to traditional migrants seeking better jobs or reconnections with family. Neither of those is considered a valid reason for asylum.
Migrants can surmount the rule by scheduling border crossings or by proving exceptional hardship. Unaccompanied children have a blanket exception to the rule.
Immigrant rights advocates called the rule a reversal of Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign pledges and an embrace of “xenophobic” Trump-era policies.
“The asylum ban will directly endanger and threaten people’s lives and violates the international humanitarian obligations of the United States,” said Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.
Rob Law, a former senior official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the issue isn’t that the new policy is too harsh. In fact, he said, it’s too lenient.
“Making it ‘harder’ to qualify for asylum is irrelevant because as long as illegal aliens can continue to make claims at the border, they will continue to be released into American communities, where they have 5-10 years’ head start to disappear,” said Mr. Law, who is now director of homeland security and immigration at the America First Policy Institute.
The policy takes effect Thursday night when the Title 42 expulsion power expires.
Mr. Mayorkas said the change is designed to encourage migrants to change their behavior and use legal pathways to enter the U.S.
He said the administration has opened new avenues, including an expansive use of parole powers, to create chances for hundreds of thousands of migrants a year.
Mr. Mayorkas said his department has also become more efficient at processing people, has opened short-term border detention facilities and has increased the number of planned deportation flights.
He said some illegal immigrants will be allowed to choose a “voluntary return,” a process short of formal deportation. Those who choose a return will be sent back to their home countries but without the consequences of a five-year ban on returning legally and without the threat of a felony charge if they try to jump the border again.
Mr. Mayorkas acknowledged in a press conference Wednesday that many migrants will still be caught and released.
He said that had been a regular practice across many administrations.
The difference is the scale under Mr. Biden.
Customs and Border Protection recorded 1,544,087 encounters with unauthorized migrants from October through March. Mr. Mayorkas said his department expelled, removed or returned 665,000 of them.
That means CBP caught and released roughly 53%.
Mr. Mayorkas blamed Congress for the state of affairs. He said lawmakers failed to pass legislation to give him the tools and resources he wants to deal with the flow of people.
Mr. Biden reiterated that view Wednesday during a visit to New York state.
“We’ve had chaos at the border for a number of years,” the president said. “We have to fully fund the border security effort.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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