On Friday morning, the Biden administration announced a controversial change in immigration policy that violated one of its biggest campaign promises. The president, attacked by criticism, changed his mind again in the afternoon. What happens to migration?
Not a good Friday for President Joe Biden. The abrupt changes he has made in the face of the country’s immigration policy have created unrest within his own party, and show that the border crisis is being abandoned due to an increase in the flow of immigrants.
What happened?
On Friday morning, the Biden administration announced it would set the refugee limit at 15,000, the lowest since former President Donald Trump left his administration. In February this year, the Democrat leader announced, with some fanfare, that he would increase the limit to 62,000 seats for refugees. So this decision did not keep his word, and worse, it left things like the former Republican president.
The announcement provoked an angry response from human rights defenders and some prominent members of the Democratic Party, who were refugees in a camp in Kenya after fleeing the civil war in Somalia.
“There is no reason for today’s embarrassing decision,” Omar tweeted.
The New York representative, Alexandria Ocacio-Cortes, joined in the critical voices, declaring the change “completely and utterly unacceptable.”
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The anger of the Democrats caused a stir in the White House, which had to reverse its initial decision a few hours later. White House Press Secretary Jen Zhaki issued a statement in which he said the Biden administration would establish a new quota for refugees before May 15. But despite his suggestion that the new number will be higher than former President Trump, Biden is unlikely to rise to the number promised in February.
“It is very disappointing that the administration has chosen to leave behind the shameful low record of its predecessors,” Chris O’Mara Wagnarajah, chairman and director of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, told The Washington Post. Many refugee resettlement and immigration support agencies regretted what happened and expressed frustration at the direction the president is taking.
Why did Biden break his promise?
The migration crisis is already undeniable. The numbers make people anxious to come to the southern border. According to Biden executives, they are slow to make strong decisions to control the crisis or are delaying a dramatic rise in refugee applications, leaving some immigrants relaxed. Assuming that this crisis will be crucial for the next election, drastic measures are necessary at this time.
With by-elections in the country in 2022, Republicans will have to undermine the current administration and its popularity, and run for legislature and key governorships.
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“It reflects the Biden group’s awareness that border flooding could cause favorable interim losses if the Republican Party keeps the issue front and center,” said Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration policy.
With the progress of the vaccine and the economic recovery, the Republicans only have the immigration letter to attack Biden and point to him as the person responsible for a crisis, although this is not entirely their responsibility, but an issue. As before, it is the main figure in the drama that is emerging in the South today.
Biden is trying to solve the problem on all fronts, handing over to his vice president Kamala Harris the task of studying what the United States can do to control the federal government, other than restructuring immigration policy to deal with figures for the first quarter. American Migration. Harris said Thursday that he will travel to Mexico and other countries in the Northern Triangle to work with these countries on the migration crisis.
See also: The Biden government is on the defensive in the face of its first immigration crisis
