Former Biden official says admin’s latest action ‘normalizes’ White nationalist beliefs about migrants

A former Biden White House official says a new asylum rule announced by the administration normalizes white nationalists’ beliefs about migrants — part of a wave of leftist criticism hitting the administration over the proposed rule.

“When I joined the Biden administration, maintaining access to asylum was important to us, not just because it was the law, but because we had evidence that banning new asylum seekers was not an operational solution to the problem of irregular asylum seekers Migration was,” Andrea Flores tweeted.

“Rather than making progress on addressing regional mass migration, the Biden administration today revived a transit ban that normalizes white nationalist beliefs that asylum seekers from certain countries deserve less humanitarian protection,” she said.

Flores, who worked on immigration affairs in the Obama and Biden administrations, was reacting to Tuesday’s announcement of a new rule proposal.

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This rule would automatically assume that migrants are not eligible for asylum if they entered the US illegally and have not applied for asylum in a country through which they have already traveled.

Unaccompanied children are exempt and there would be other factors that could invalidate the presumption, including an acute medical emergency, a victim of human trafficking and an “extreme and imminent” threat to life or safety.

Migrants can still enter the US to seek asylum if they have been rejected by a third country, if they report to a port of entry after making an appointment via the new CBP One app, or if they are released to the US. You can also appeal the presumption.

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The policy is a temporary two-year policy and is intended to replace Public Order Title 42, which was used to expedite the expulsion of migrants due to the COVID-19 emergency and is scheduled to end on May 11.

Immigration policy advocates and Democrats have reacted with dismay at the policy, which resembles the “transit ban” proposed by the Trump administration and ultimately blocked by the courts. Administration officials have repeatedly dismissed comparisons to the transit ban, citing the existence and expansion of legal avenues for migrants. They have argued that, unlike in the Trump administration, the avenues to seek asylum remain open.

“We are a nation of immigrants and we are a nation of laws. We are strengthening the availability of legal, orderly pathways for migrants to enter the United States, while proposing new consequences for those who do not use the procedures made available to them by the United States and its regional partners,” he said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a statement.

“As we have seen time and time again, individuals who are offered a safe, orderly, and legal route into the United States are less likely to risk their lives by traveling thousands of miles at the hands of ruthless smugglers just to get into… our southern border and face the legal ramifications of illegal entry,” he said.

But that explanation hasn’t satisfied activists, who accuse the administration of undermining the right to seek asylum.

“It is deeply disheartening for a government striving to uphold racial justice to see it normalize the dehumanizing narrative that black and brown migrants on the southern border deserve punishment for seeking a legal avenue that the Congress intended for them,” Flores tweeted.

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“Our asylum system is deeply broken, just as broken as the rest of our immigration system. But this new transit ban and CBP One will do nothing to mitigate the legal and operational failures of the current system,” she said.

Flores’ criticism has been similar to that of House and Senate Democrats who have also criticized the policy.

“We are deeply disappointed that the government has decided to proceed with the publication of this proposed rule, which only perpetuates the pernicious myth that asylum seekers pose a threat to this nation,” said Sens. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, Cory Booker, D-NJ, Ben Ray Lujan, DN.M and Alex Padilla, D-Calif. said in a statement.

“They are actually following a legal path in the United States. We have a duty to protect vulnerable migrants under national and international law and should not leave vulnerable migrants stranded in countries that cannot protect them. We urge President Biden and Secretary of State Mayorkas to reverse course and pave a better way forward that protects the right to asylum while addressing the real operational challenges on our southern border.”