Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says President Joe Biden is doing an “impression” of Donald Trump with new reports that he is considering an overhaul of how the country handles asylum claims at the southern border.
Reports emerged Wednesday that Biden is considering executive actions that would raise the standard used in the initial asylum screening interview at the border, which assesses whether migrants have “credible fear” of fleeing their countries of origin.
It would also implement elements of a bill that was defeated earlier this month, including closing the border to new arrivals if more than 8,500 people cross on any given day, or an average of 5,000 per day over the course of a week .
“Doing Trump impressions is not the way we beat Trump,” Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote in a post on X in response to the reports.
AOC says Joe Biden is ‘imitating’ Donald Trump with reports of new executive order that would overhaul asylum-seeking process at southern border
Progressives are sounding the alarm over reports that President Joe Biden is considering an executive order that would mimic many of Donald Trump’s policies at the border. Pictured: An aerial photo shows a group of immigrants attempting to cross the Texas border despite increased security measures in Eagle Pass, Texas
“Seeking asylum is a legal right of all people,” the progressive team member added. ‘Faced with an authoritarian threat, we should not abandon our principles; we have to stick to it.”
“The very suggestion is outrageous and the president should refuse to sign it.”
Reports that Biden plans to overhaul the way asylum seekers are treated at the border follow the historic ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this month as Republicans decried the administration’s immigration policies.
The House of Representatives articles of impeachment say Mayorkas violated the public trust and had a “deliberate and systematic refusal to comply with the law.”
Progressive lawmakers have grown increasingly angry with Biden over a handful of issues, including the border crisis and his support for Israel in the war with Hamas terrorists.
Michigan progressives plan to vote “uncommitted” instead of Biden during next week’s primaries. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a fellow team member, supports the effort to protest the vote against the president.
Meanwhile, a former senior administration official from Donald Trump’s White House said he is “obsessed” with involving the military at the southern border. according to The Washington Post.
And if elected to another term, Trump has promised he would prioritize re-tightening the southern border and said there would be “the largest domestic deportation” in US history with him at the helm .
Biden is preparing executive actions that would raise standards during “credible fear interviews” for asylum seekers crossing the southern border, meaning fewer will likely be eligible for asylum in the US.
AOC said “impressions” of Trump are not the way to beat him in the 2024 election
According to a report Wednesday, the order would adopt a “last in, first out” policy that would more quickly deport asylum-seeking migrants who do not meet reasonable fear requirements. Pictured: Migrants cross the US-Mexico border under barbed wire on February 6, 2024
AOC says the proposal mimics what former President Donald Trump did with his border policies. Trump says he would carry out “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if he were to run for president again
The southern border crisis, the economy and Biden’s advancing age are all major concerns for voters heading into the 2024 presidential election.
To address the first problem, Biden is considering bypassing Congress — after repeatedly blaming the legislature for the border crisis — and taking unilateral action to make it harder for migrants to pass the initial asylum screening interview.
Biden’s order, Officials familiar with the deliberations tell NBC Newswould also allow for faster deportations of recently arrived migrants who do not meet these stricter criteria.
The new policy would direct asylum officials to raise standards for “credible fear interviews,” which assess whether migrants should reasonably fear for their lives or safety in the countries they have fled.
In addition, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be told to implement a “last in, first out” policy, prioritizing recently arrived migrants for deportation, officials revealed.
Biden is also considering closing the border if 8,500 migrants try to cross in one day, a law that former President Doanld Trump has used repeatedly. The same action would be taken if there were an average of 5,000 crossings per day over the course of a week.
House Republicans rejected the border negotiations earlier this month, even though they included several sweeping bills that would help defuse the southern border crisis.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has called on Biden to use the 212(f) authority, which gives the president leeway to block the entry of certain immigrants into the US.
When Biden took office in January 2021, he immediately ended some of Trump’s policies at the southern border, which had been put in place to quell rising migration. This has led to a massive increase in the number of border crossings per day and has exacerbated the illegal immigration and drug smuggling crisis.
The implementation of the reversal of this policy ultimately led to the impeachment of Mayorkas, which was a way for Republicans in the House of Representatives to punish the administration for its handling of the southern border and migration.
In December, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered 301,983 migrants at the US-Mexico border – a new single-month high in crossings.
The order also includes closing the border to new migrants when the number of border crossings reaches a certain number: 8,500 at one time. This reflects a provision in the Senate border deal, which would have triggered the expulsion of migrants if the number of illegal border crossings exceeded 5,000 per day for five days.
Migrants cross the border to be received and processed by Customs and Border Protection and have their asylum application assessed
Trump wants to model a new immigration model based on a 1950s program under President Dwight D. Eisenhower known as “Operation Wetback,” a derogatory slur used to refer to a Mexican living in the U.S. without official permission.
This program used military tactics to round up and remove migrants working in the US
Trump promises that if he becomes president again, he will immediately launch a similar program that would lead to “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”
“Americans can expect that immediately upon his return to the Oval Office, President Trump will restore all his previous policies, implement brand new repressive actions that will send shockwaves to every criminal smuggler in the world, and marshal every federal and state force necessary to the largest deportation operation in American history,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Some argue that military roundups and deportations would hamper detention spaces, but Trump and his team have said they would sidestep this problem by building mass deportation camps.