The Biden administration on Thursday announced its plans to head off a full-scale run at the border next month, promising a massive expansion of what it called legal pathways for people in Latin America to come to the U.S., coupled with a more aggressive approach to tossing out those who don’t use those pathways.
The idea is to try to entice people away from making the dangerous journey and attempting an illegal crossing, but to still encourage as many people as possible to come if they think they have a valid reason to reach the U.S.
Officials described a carrot-and-stick approach. They will open new recruiting centers in Latin American countries where would-be migrants will be told of all the potential pathways they could take to reach the U.S., but officials will also finalize a regulation that could deny people a chance to make an asylum claim if they had a chance to do so in another country but passed it up to reach the U.S.
The administration called it an “innovative response” to what’s expected to be an unprecedented surge of illegal immigration once the government’s Title 42 pandemic power to expel illegal border crossers expires on May 11.
“We will reduce the need for irregular movements through the hemisphere,” a senior official said in briefing reporters ahead of the announcement by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
But they acknowledged things will still go south in the early days, as they expect a surge in illegal immigration. They blamed smugglers whom they said will “spread disinformation” that the border is open.
While not exactly open, the border has become far more porous under President Biden, with illegal immigrants from many countries seeing pretty good chances of being released into the U.S. if they do manage to jump the border.
That has fueled unprecedented chaos over the last two years, with Border Patrol agents recording record crossings and detecting record levels of fentanyl flowing across and terrorism suspects trying to sneak in.
The Biden team’s approach has largely been to try to manage, rather than reduce, the flow of people.
Officials argue that they want to give migrants every chance to make claims of protection. The problem is that most of those claims will fail — but it takes years for a ruling, which means migrants can gain a foothold here from which it’s difficult to oust them when they do lose their cases. Analysts say that serves as an incentive for more to make the attempt.
The administration says migration is hitting the entire hemisphere, and solving it will take cooperation from the international community.
Canada and Spain have been roped into the new plan. They have offered to take some of the would-be migrants.
Panama has also promised cooperation in trying to reduce people coming through the Darien Gap, a stretch of jungle at the point where South America connects to Central America. The gap has become a chokepoint — and dying ground — for migrants trying to reach the U.S. from beyond North America.
Colombia and Guatemala have agreed to host “regional processing centers” that will help would-be migrants figure out a path they can take to get into the U.S.
Officials said they will first be screened to see if they qualify as refugees, then for parole, then any family reunification options and labor visas. They will also be advised about local options if they give up their dream of reaching the U.S.
With roughly two weeks to go, some of the plan remains a work in progress.
The regional centers are not yet operational, and officials insisted there will be other options beyond Guatemala and Colombia, but said they weren’t ready to talk about them yet.
“They will be up and running in the coming weeks,” an official said, promising more details on a new “virtual appointment system” that would-be migrants will use to schedule appearances at the centers.
The plan relies heavily on Mr. Mayorkas’s power of “parole,” which grants a short-term admission to the U.S. for otherwise illegal immigrants.
That parole power is currently being challenged in court by opponents who say Mr. Mayorkas has stretched it far beyond its intent, which was to apply in select urgent humanitarian cases or instances where admitting someone would be of significant benefit to the U.S. public. That has generally been held to mean cases such as obtaining urgent medical treatment or serving as a witness in a criminal investigation.
Under the Biden administration, however, hundreds of thousands of people have been paroled as an alternative to the more regular forms of border enforcement.
Biden administration officials expressed confidence their new plan can work, pointing to a test run over the last few months with migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua. They were told that they could earn “parole” into the U.S. if they applied before showing up at the border, but were told if they came without an appointment they would be pushed back into Mexico.
The number of people from those countries jumping the border fell dramatically after the program was announced in early January, leading to a drop in total border numbers.
As of March, numbers from Nicaragua, Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela were still far below last year’s rate. But other countries had started to pick up the slack. Indeed, more unauthorized migrants entered this March than did in the same month a year ago — though a larger portion came through official ports of entry rather than sneaking across between border crossings.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.