Keys to the pact on migration and border security in the US

The immigration reform agreement “harder“In decades in the United States it restricts the flow of migrants on the border with Mexico, but to be implemented it needs the green light from Congress.

These are the keys to this pact negotiated by the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden with a bipartisan group of senators.

He will receive US$20 billion if he passes the screening of the Senate and the House of Representatives, whose president, Republican Mike Johnson, considers it “dead”.

Crossing restriction

The bill establishes a “Border Emergency Authority”, which allows the president and the secretary of Homeland Security to temporarily prohibit people from seeking asylum, with limited exceptions, when the border with Mexico is collapsed.

They can restrict border crossings if the daily average of migrants reaches 4,000 in a week, but they will be obliged to prohibit them if they exceed an average of 5,000 a day – in a period of seven consecutive days – or 8,500 in a single day.

It can only be used 270 days during the first year, 225 days in the second and 180 in the third. After three years it will cease to exist.

Biden claims that he allows him to close the border when he is “collapsed”, but Greg Chen, director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), denies this.

“Ports of entry will remain open” and people with US passports and visas and at least 1,400 asylum seekers per day will be able to access it, he stated this Monday during a debate.

The measure is not without risks.

In the long term it is likely to encouragemore crime and violence at the border instead of improving order and security because asylum seekers will continue to arrive and wait there“, Explain.

“It is also not clear that it will be an effective deterrent.”says Chen, because they will not stop wanting to come and many will do so without knowing if it is open or closed.

Streamline process

The agreement toughens the standard for so-called credible fear interviews, in which it is assessed whether there is a possibility that the person will be persecuted or tortured if they return to their country. Migrants will have to demonstrate that they have a “reasonable possibility” of being granted it.

Those with criminal records would be excluded.

In addition, asylum officials may grant the request when they evaluate the person if they consider that the case is clear.

And if the person wants to appeal they can do so before a board made up of asylum officials. The idea is to allocate significantly more resources to them so they do not have to resort to the federal judicial system.

The bill reduces the application process from the current 5 to 7 years to six months. A realistic goal? “It won’t happen overnight. It will take a long time to implement this”Chen predicts.

Asylum seekers will be authorized to work as soon as they pass the protection assessment, in order to reduce pressure on the cities that host them.

Currently they have to wait 180 days from the moment they submit their asylum application.

Family unit

For the first time in more than three decades, it increases the limit on the number of immigrant visas available annually by adding 250,000 visas over 5 years (50,000/year).

Of them, 160,000 will be family members to prioritize reunification and the others, employment.

To support family unity, the bill allows some foreigners to travel to the United States on a temporary visitor visa to join relatives.

It also authorizes approximately 25,000 nonimmigrant visa holders (fiancé or spouse and children of U.S. citizens) to work per year, and about 100,000 for partners and children with visas of some skilled workers.

It also expedites the process for the permanent status of the approximately 76,000 Afghans who entered the country under Operation Welcome Allies and their families.

What is missing?

“This is the wrong approach. But it’s a start and it’s important.”, Andrea R. Flores, vice president of immigration policies and campaigns of the NGO FWD.us, stated in the debate.

Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, misses “invest in root causes” of migration, allocate more money to the cities that host migrants and grant more work permits because the additional “they are not enough” to meet the needs of the economy.

For Chen, it is also essential to protect the dreamers, as young people who came to the United States as children are known. In this point “is where these conversations must continue”.