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alejandro mayorkas
Critics Compare Biden's Proposed Asylum Rule to 'Failed Trump-Era Policies'
"The Biden administration and Congress must not erect any more unjust barriers to asylum that will sow further disorder and result in irreparable harm," said one migrant rights advocate.
May 09, 2024
Immigrant rights advocates on Thursday slammed the Biden administration's proposal to fast-track the rejection of certain migrants seeking asylum in the United States.
On Thursday the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposed a rule that would empower immigration officials to disqualify certain asylum-seekers during their initial eligibility screening—called the credible fear interview (CFI)—using existing national security and terrorism-related criteria, or bars.
DHS said the rule would apply to noncitizens who have "engaged in certain criminal activity, persecuted others, or have been involved in terrorist activities."
"I urge President Biden to embrace our values as a nation of immigrants and use this opportunity to instead provide relief for the long-term immigrants of this nation."
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the proposed rule "yet another step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the American public by more quickly identifying and removing those individuals who present a security risk and have no legal basis to remain here."
However, Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, argued that while "bars are an important feature of our immigration laws to ensure that dangerous individuals are not allowed into the country," they must be "accurately applied where warranted."
"This change could make the process faster by excluding people who would not be entitled to stay," he noted. "However, due process will likely be eroded by accelerating what is a highly complex legal analysis needed for these bars and conducting them at the preliminary CFI screening."
As Chen explained:
At that early stage, few asylum seekers will have the opportunity to seek legal counsel or time to understand the consequences of a bar being applied. Under the current process, they have more time to seek legal advice, to prepare their case, and to appeal it or seek an exemption. Ultimately to establish a fair and orderly process at the border, Congress needs to provide the Department of Homeland Security with the resources to meet its mission and also ensure the truly vulnerable are not summarily denied protection without due process.
Democratic lawmakers—some of whom held a press conference Wednesday on protecting undocumented immigrants in the U.S.—also criticized the proposal.
"As the Biden administration considers executive actions on immigration, we must not return to failed Trump-era policies aimed at banning asylum and moving us backwards," said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), referring to former Republican President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee to face President Joe Biden in November.
"I urge President Biden to embrace our values as a nation of immigrants and use this opportunity to instead provide relief for the long-term immigrants of this nation," he added.
One year ago, critics accused Biden of "finishing Trump's job" by implementing a crackdown on asylum-seekers upon the expiration of Title 42—a provision first invoked during Trump administration at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and continued by Biden to expel more than 1 million migrants under the pretext of public safety.
Earlier this week, the advocacy group Human Rights First released a report detailing the harms of the policy on its anniversary. The group held a press conference to unveil the report and warn of the dangers of further anti-migrant policies.
"The interviews with hundreds of asylum-seekers make clear that the asylum ban and related restrictions strands in danger children and adults seeking asylum, punishes people for seeking protection, leads to the return of refugees to persecution, spurs irregular crossings, and denies equal access to asylum to people facing the most dire risks," Human Rights First director of research and analysis of refugee protection Christina Asencio said during the press conference.
"The Biden administration and Congress must not erect any more unjust barriers to asylum that will sow further disorder and result in irreparable harm," Asencio added.
On Wednesday, three advocacy groups—Al Otro Lado, the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center, and the Texas Civil Rights Project—sued the federal government on behalf of noncitizens with disabilities seeking more information regarding CBP One, the problem-plagued Customs and Border Protection app migrants must use to schedule asylum interviews at U.S. ports of entry.
"We have and continue to see migrants with disabilities facing unlawful discrimination and unequal access to the asylum process due to the inaccessibility of the app," said Laura Murchie, an attorney with the Civil Rights and Education Enforcement Center involved in the case.
"CBP needs to release these documents so we can advocate for and ensure compliance with the law so asylum-seekers with disabilities do not continue to be harmed by CBP's disregard for rights that are guaranteed by federal disability law," she added.
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'A New Low': House Republicans Impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas
"When you have no record of accomplishment to run on... this is what you do," said one Texas Democrat. "You put on a circus."
Feb 13, 2024
In what congressional Democrats blasted as yet another example of right-wingers in the U.S. House of Representatives creating "chaos" because they "simply can't govern," 214 Republicans voted Tuesday to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Three Republicans—Reps. Ken Buck (Colo.), Mike Gallagher (Wis.), and Tom McClintock (Calif.)—joined all 210 Democrats present in voting against impeaching Mayorkas for his handling of immigration at the southern U.S. border. Two members of each party did not vote.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who is seeking reelection in November, said in a lengthy statement after the vote that "history will not look kindly on House Republicans for their blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games."
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) declared that "the 'do-nothing' Republican Party continues to waste time and resources that could be spent working for the American people on baseless, partisan attacks of Biden administration officials as they take up this sham impeachment vote of Secretary Mayorkas."
Jayapal noted that Tuesday's vote came after a failed attempt last week, when only House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) was absent and Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) voted with the three Republicans and 212 Democrats who opposed impeaching Mayorkas.
"There is no question that the immigration system is broken—and what the American people want and deserve is an orderly and humane system that properly processes people and modernizes an outdated immigration system that has not been updated in over 30 years to reflect for the needs of our American economy, communities, and families," she said.
As The New York Timessummarized earlier this month:
The first article of impeachment accuses Mr. Mayorkas of refusing to enforce a law that mandates the detention of migrants who lack authorization to enter the United States, and of exceeding his authority to parole those people into the country, allowing them to live and work temporarily while they wait for their immigration claims to be processed.
The second article accuses the secretary of breaching the public trust by misrepresenting the state of the border to lawmakers and hampering the Republican-led investigation into his conduct.
Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) took to the House floor to condemn the impeachment as a "sham."
"When you have no record of accomplishment to run on... this is what you do," he said. "You put on a circus."
The only other Cabinet member to ever be impeached was William Belknap, who resigned as secretary of war just before the vote in 1876. According to Time, "The Senate went forward with the trial anyway, but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict."
In 2024, the Senate is narrowly controlled by Democrats, and as The Associated Pressnoted Tuesday, "neither Democratic nor Republican senators have shown interest in the matter and it may be indefinitely shelved to a committee."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement that Mayorkas' impeachment is an attempt by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) "to further appease" former President Donald Trump—the GOP presidential front-runner who has pressured congressional Republicans to abandon their battle for new border policies so he can campaign on limiting immigration.
"This sham impeachment effort is another embarrassment for House Republicans," said Schumer. "House Republicans failed to produce any evidence that Secretary Mayorkas has committed any crime. House Republicans failed to show he has violated the Constitution."
"House Republicans failed to present any evidence of anything resembling an impeachable offense," he added. "This is a new low for House Republicans."
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The Border Convoy Was a Green Light for Political Violence
The bigotry and violence that stemmed from the border convoy represents a terrifying snapshot of what anti-democracy forces want America to look like.
Feb 11, 2024
This past weekend, the nation saw a dangerous in-person mobilization, the troubling result of bigoted rhetoric and online organizing, an ilk of which we haven’t seen since the January 6 insurrection.
The much-hyped anti-immigrant convoy of a few dozen pickup trucks, dubbed by its organizers as “Take Our Border Back,” made its way from the East Coast and expanded as it coalesced on Saturday, February 3, with rallies in Eagle Pass, Texas; San Ysidro, California; and Yuma, Arizona. The convoy, mostly comprised of lesser-known pro-Trump grifters, also had the endorsement of elected officials and right-wing media figures. Its “goal” was ostensibly to draw further attention to a perceived crisis on the U.S./Mexico border, but to dismiss it as a mere publicity stunt would be a mistake. Last weekend’s Take Our Border Back convoy was a rallying cry to white nationalist groups and a green light for political violence.
The fact that the convoy occurred at a moment when anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S. has reached a fever pitch is hardly a coincidence.
Our democracy also requires an end to impunity for illegal paramilitary activity.
Election years traditionally are harbingers of spikes in anti-immigrant sentiment, and this year is no different, with political ads in states far from the border full of nativist vitriol and former President Donald Trump telling an audience that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” In Congress, repeated attempts from the GOP to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are entirely focused on xenophobia, and white nationalist groups around the country are also jumping on the anti-immigrant bandwagon, organizing anti-migrant protests in multiple states.
It would also be a mistake to see the border convoy as an isolated incident. Instead, it is part of an escalating effort by illegal paramilitary groups to use violence and to achieve their anti-immigrant goals. These groups are acting with impunity—not only are they rarely stopped by law enforcement, but worse, they have even been colluding with them. They are mobilizing members based on the same bigoted rhetoric being echoed by members of Congress, and they are attracting bad actors from across the anti-democracy movement.
Last weekend’s rallies included local neo-Nazis, anti-democracy politicians like Joe Kent, and anti-democracy provocateurs. Their driving force is rhetoric that can lead to violence. For instance, Gov. Greg Abbott, who said, “The only thing that we’re not doing is we’re not shooting people who come across the border.” Small pockets of attendees have engaged in direct intimidation of migrants, filming them and espousing conspiracies about aid groups on the border. Earlier last week, the Border Patrol processing center in Eagle Pass had to be evacuated after the FBI warned of threats. And on February 6, news broke of a militia “sniper” Paul Faye Sr. arrested the day before after plotting to go to the border with explosives to target Border Patrol agents in an attempt to inspire a “domino effect” of more targeting of federal agents.
Faye Sr.’s court records reveal that he is a proponent of the great replacement conspiracy theory, which has motivated antisemitic violence in Pittsburgh, anti-Black violence in Buffalo, racist violence in El Paso, and anti-immigrant violence at the border again and again. This is the same conspiracy theory echoed by many border convoy speakers last weekend and by members of Congress, who used it as justification for filing articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. In fact, according to the immigrant rights group America’s Voice, GOP candidates and officials have echoed the great replacement theory over 1,040 times in the past year, a sobering example of how white nationalist conspiracy theories have moved from the margins to the mainstream.
The dangerous mobilization last weekend was just the latest chapter demonstrating the link between bigoted rhetoric to violence and intimidation. Paramilitary groups have spent decades crossing state lines and flocking to “patrol” the border, to hunt down and detain migrants. Many of these groups are not doing so stealthily but are advertising and filming their “missions” and openly asking for donations and supplies through Amazon wish lists. The problem has become so widespread that in July of last year, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Reps. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) called on the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the presence of paramilitary militia groups patrolling the border and their attempts to court law enforcement personnel.
We didn’t arrive here overnight. While former President Trump certainly helped to expedite the process, before him, the organized anti-immigrant movement in the United States spent decades cultivating relationships with elected officials, drafting draconian legislation at the local level, and spewing out reports blaming immigrants for all of America’s ills. That movement was founded by white nationalist John Tanton, who once wrote, “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.”
Thankfully, border communities last weekend demonstrated that there is much we can do to defend against pernicious anti-immigrant sentiment. They organized, they spoke out based on their values, and they prioritized community safety. We need to see the same dedication from our elected officials in Congress to push back, again and again, against the normalization of bigotry.
Our democracy also requires an end to impunity for illegal paramilitary activity. The evacuation of the Border Patrol processing center in Eagle Pass along with the arrest of Paul Faye Sr. should send a clear message to Border Patrol that America’s militia movement is not their friend. For too long, the Department of Homeland Security has evaded scrutiny from civil rights groups for evidence that its agents are working directly with these vigilante groups. A clear rejection of armed illegal paramilitary groups by Customs and Border Protection would close the space for these groups to operate.
The bigotry and violence that stemmed from the border convoy and the racist conspiracy theories that fueled the Mayorkas impeachment hearings represent a terrifying snapshot of what anti-democracy forces want America to look like. We must continue to reject that vision and work toward an America that includes opportunities and rights for all of us.
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