President Biden is facing criticism from within his own party from elected officials and pro-immigration advocates as his administration reportedly considers restricting asylum claims.
Multiple outlets reported that, in the wake of the failure of the bipartisan Senate border legislation this month, the White House is eyeing potential executive action to tackle the migrant crisis. An administration source told Fox News that the president is considering executive action to restrict the ability of migrants to claim asylum, but that it’s one of "several" plans being looked at.
The policy has already turned members of Congress and well-funded immigration think tanks against Biden, according to a Hill report from Thursday.
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"Cruel enforcement-only policies have been tried for 30 years and simply do not work," Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said.
Rep. Jesús García, D-Ill., claimed that restricting asylum claims "is Trump policy" in a post on X.
"People seek asylum because they fear for their lives," he said. "President Biden would be making a grave mistake if he moves forward with this policy."
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., argued that "the mere suggestion is outrageous and the President should refuse to sign it," adding that "doing Trump impressions isn’t how we beat Trump."
"The executive actions the Biden administration is considering harken back to some of the darkest chapters of the Trump presidency — leaning on an authority his predecessor used to advance unapologetically racist, Islamophobic and blatantly unlawful attacks on immigrants and asylum seekers," Azadeh Erfani, senior policy analyst at the National Immigrant Justice Center, told The Hill.
"President Biden rightly revoked these extremist policies upon taking office. If he moves forward with the changes reported, he’d be embracing them," she said.
"The clear intention behind President Biden’s newest proposed deterrence policy is to create so much fear, pain, and suffering at the border that vulnerable communities abandon their right to seek asylum and instead return to face the violence they are fleeing," Amy Fischer, director of refugee and migrant rights with Amnesty International USA, told the outlet.
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"These proposed changes by the Biden Administration would undoubtedly violate both U.S. and international human rights law that establish people may seek asylum regardless of whether they cross at a port of entry or between ports of entry," she continued. "A similar policy was found to be illegal when it was attempted during the Trump Administration."
Fischer bashed Biden's refusal to bring back "access to asylum at ports" as well as increase "port processing capacity" and invest in other solutions to the border crisis.
"Instead of looking forward to these solutions, President Biden continues to only look back into Trump’s playbook of cruelty," she said.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
