President Biden has created a border plan to grant 30,000 immigrants legal entry into the United States each month.
President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he is amending a plan that would allow 30,000 immigrants to enter the United States legally each month.
The plan aims to strengthen restrictions on those entering the country through the southern border and will instead focus on helping migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua.
The new regulations build on an ongoing initiative to thwart the attempted entry of Venezuelans into the country, which was launched in October and has led to a sharp drop in the number of Venezuelans approaching the southern border.
Biden said this new process is orderly. "It's safe and humane, and it works."
With the new plan, Biden advised asylum seekers to finish the process before reaching the border.
"Don't do it; just don't show up at the border," Biden said. "Stay where you are and apply legally from there."
This new program feels like a turn over a new page for the United States. During the Trump administration, the country has been adamant about reducing immigration as much as possible.
Expanding border patrols, increasing border walls, and disingenuous immigration policies have been the theme for the past four years.
Now, President Biden appears ready to welcome immigrants with open arms.
Under the new plan, the United States will accept 30,000 people per month from the four countries for two years and offer the ability to work legally, as long as they come honestly, have qualified sponsors, and pass a screening and background check.
Today, President Biden correctly recognized that seeking asylum is a legal right and spoke with empathy for people fleeing persecution, said Jonathan Blazer, director of Border Strategies at the ACLU. But the plan he announced further associates his administration with the toxic anti-immigrant politics of the Trump era rather than restoring equitable access to asylum protections.
The new regulation could allow about 360,000 citizens of these four countries to join the United States legally each year, which is a significant number. However, far more immigrants from those four countries were arrested 82,286 times in November alone while trying to enter the United States on foot, by boat, or while swimming.
Although the new plan is more immigration-friendly than the one during the Trump administration, Biden has acknowledged that it will not address all immigration issues.
And Biden said the measures we're announcing would improve things but will only partially solve the border problem.
Border security has been a topic of heavy debate during the Biden administration. Since the end of last September, more than two million illegal immigrants have been apprehended at the Texas-Mexico border.
This is the first time this number has exceeded 2 million arrests. The dire state of the border has caused Republicans to pressure Biden to tighten his grip on immigration.
While this new plan likely won't satisfy everyone, it should severely reduce illegal immigration, which was the ultimate goal.
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