Niveditaa Chakrapani, JadeTimes Staff
N. Chakrapani is a Jadetimes news reporter covering science and geopolitics
Immigration policy, particularly regarding the southern border of the United States, is one of the most contentious and highly charged debates in the United States. It raises issues about national security, economic impact, humanitarian considerations, and the highly knotty issue about asylum. As both parties have provided severely conflicting visions as to what is the best means to confront the challenges around immigration, it has been at the center of the 2024 presidential campaign.
The Southern Border: A National Debate
As a border to the American south, it has been a cornerstone in discussions around immigration for a long time. The 2,000-mile distance from California to Texas is a front door for legal and illegal immigrants. This border spans an enormous section of possible trade, too. The number of people trying to cross in the past decade has been huge, with people seeking refuge from violence, poverty, and political instability in Central and South America.
One of the toughest issues the Biden administration faced was how to handle the influx of migrants at the southern border. Just six weeks into his presidency, President Biden rescinded some of the tougher immigration policies that former President Donald Trump had launched, including a halt to building the border wall and an end to the "Remain in Mexico" policy, where asylum seekers are being forced to wait out their claims in Mexico, rather than in the US. However, these changes have not been taken very well by the Republicans who claim it has brought in a "crisis" at the border, with record numbers crossing and swamping immigration facilities.
Asylum Policies Under Pressure
Asylum policies appear to take the center stage of the immigration debate. Asylum refers to legal protection accorded to those who can demonstrate a well-founded fear of being persecuted in their countries based on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Being one of the historical global leaders in asylum to refugees, such policy has, in recent times seen major alterations in terms of processing and handling asylum claims.
Among them are the "zero tolerance" policy regarding family separation at the border and the third-country transit rule, which barred migrants who had passed through a country other than the United States to file for asylum. Biden has largely reversed many of these policies, to restore a more humane treatment to immigration.
However, the sheer volume of asylum applicants at the border complicates matters for Biden. Immigration courts face large backlogs, and it can take two years or more for a case to get a decision. Critics assert that slow processing times combined with an arbitrary rate of denial leave many asylum seekers in limbo for years, often unable to seek legal employment while awaiting decisions on their claims.
In response to the influx of migrants, the Biden Administration has enacted new policies targeting asylum seekers. Among the top features of the new approach is an increased reliance on the "Title 42" public health order, which permits the authorities to expel migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. While purported to serve as a restriction on the spread of the virus, Title 42 has become a catch-all for the quick rejection of asylum seekers at the border, thus inducing legal challenges and criticism from the immigration advocates that insist it denies real refugees the opportunity to plead their case.
Immigration Reform: A Long-Standing Challenge
Urging reform of the immigration system has long been a talking point, but Congress in Washington has failed to pass meaningful legislation. Even though they agree that the current system is broken, the two parties have sharply different ideas on how to fix it.
Generally, the Republicans in their electioneering strategies made immigration a core issue which they uphold in advancing their campaigns and they advance actions such as an increase in the length of the U.S-Mexico border walls, provision of more fiscal resources to the border patrol officers, and increased penalties for those who advance the practice of illegal immigration. Others also advance changes that would emphasize high-tech immigration, diminish family-based immigration, and end the sanctuary cities which fail to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
The slogan "build the wall" - which became synonymous with former President Donald Trump's promise to complete a barrier along the southern border - has been an emblem of the Republican view on border security. While only a part of the wall was constructed when Trump was in office, he and many other Republicans still maintain that higher barriers are needed to stop illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and human smuggling.
The thing is that, on the other side of the aisle, Democrats insist that the understanding of the focus on enforcement fails to address this very issue- the root cause of migration because it holds the ability to take into consideration humane policies that respect people's rights as asylum seekers to reunify families. Democrats include a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S.; protections for "Dreamers" under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program; and investment in border technology and personnel to improve security without reliance on walls.
President Biden put forward a very ambitious immigration reform plan that incorporated many aspects similar to the bill but unfortunately met strong resistance in Congress. Some of the aspects of this proposed plan involve granting an eight-year pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, revision of the existing visa system, and tackling the primary cause of migration in Central America through either aid or development programs. The issue given the present divided nature of the Congress is unlikely to be passed any time in the near future.
Lost in much of the political rhetoric is the humanitarian aspect of the immigration debate. Many of those crossing the southern border are fleeing desperate circumstances—violence from drug cartels, extreme poverty, and corrupt governments. Migrant caravans from countries like Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador have become a regular occurrence, with families walking for weeks in dangerous conditions to reach the U.S.
The border conditions are often harsh, and many attract outcry and criticism from human rights organizations over overcrowded detention facilities and inadequate accessibility to basic needs like food, water, and medical care. But the Biden administration has had the advantage of working on improving conditions in these facilities; this volume of migrants however proves too much for the system, making choices for government agencies very difficult and straining resources.
The second criticism is that the U.S. is mistreating unaccompanied minors, thousands of whom try to cross the border every year. Most of these children flee violence at home, but the detention in immigration facilities for holding kids for extended periods in reportedly poor conditions angers everybody.
The Way Forward
Immigration policy, likely to continue through electoral periods in the years to come, is one particular issue that is guaranteed to remain a defining topic of debate in U.S. politics at least in the immediate future. Both parties now clamor into the 2024 presidential election with immigration being the primary point of contention against each other, promising different solutions to the challenges around the borders and more broadly in the whole immigration system.
While the Biden administration has taken steps in a more humane direction, Republicans are continuing to double down on calls for strict enforcement. The country remains divided over how to manage the southern border and sort asylum claims; however, one thing that's certain is without comprehensive reform, challenges facing America's immigration system will continue to be the drumbeat of national conversation.
Lawmakers in Congress will shape the future course of U.S. immigration policy as they try to reconcile national security needs and humanitarian demands with strictly economic considerations. The southern border, meanwhile, remains a symbol of the larger immigration debate: a line in the sand separating two competing visions for America's future.
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