Washington —
As U.S. midterm elections approach, immigration remains one of the country's most contentious political issues, mostly concerning the number of people trying to enter the U.S. at the southwestern border.
While a record number of migrants are arriving at the U.S. Mexico border — for which Republicans blame President Joe Biden, a Democrat — data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) show the Biden administration has been active on immigration, issuing 296 executive orders.
And the Biden administration has kept in place some Trump-era policies.
The Biden administration has continued Title 42, a policy implemented in March 2020 by order of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to protect public health during the pandemic. More than 1 million migrants seeking to apply for asylum in the United States were . Implemented and enforced as a blanket policy by the Trump administration, Title 42 has been modified under Biden to allow unaccompanied minors and families with young children to enter the U.S.
U.S. law offers asylum to people facing persecution in their home countries on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular group.
In May 2022, the Biden administration announced it would end Title 42. Republican-led states sued, and a court ruling has kept the policy in place without an expiration date.
The Biden administration was successful in ending another Trump-era policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which required asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for an immigration court to hear their case.
Because of a federal court order, migrants are no longer being enrolled in MPP. Those already enrolled in MPP and waiting in Mexico will be allowed to enter the U.S. for their next court date and not have to return to Mexico.
On May 31, 2022, the administration began implementing a . The new guidance is aimed at streamlining the asylum process and sending fewer cases to backlogged U.S. immigration courts. U.S. asylum officers would adjudicate the asylum claims of the migrants placed into expedited removal proceedings after May 31.
Biden initially kept the U.S. refugee annual ceiling at 15,000, the smallest number in modern U.S. history, prompting protests from Democrats on Capitol Hill. In May, the administration raised the ceiling to 62,500. However, the number of refugees actually admitted into the U.S. totaled 11,411 for fiscal 2021, which ended September 30.
The Biden administration has raised the fiscal 2022 refugee cap to 125,000. But as of July, the program has admitted 17,690 refugees. Advocates say that the administration is going to fall short of its ambitious target, but they note the refugee program is still rebuilding after years of constrained admissions.
Biden is expected to set a new ceiling on October 1, but challenges associated with the pandemic and resource allocation remain.
The Biden administration vowed to make better use of existing enforcement resources away from the border, which include guidelines on detention, arrests, and removals. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the , "Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Laws" on Sept. 30, 2021.
Mayorkas ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to focus on migrants who posed a threat to public safety, national security threats, and those who had recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Under former President Donald Trump, ICE officers were given broad discretion to arrest and deport any immigrants.
Some Republican-led states sued the Biden administration, arguing the guidance mostly focuses on individuals convicted of aggravated felonies while ignoring people who committed other crimes. A federal court judge has since blocked some elements of the September guidelines.
According to MPI, current DHS priority enforcement guidelines focus on limiting immigration enforcement against specific populations, locations and situations. Other than that, ICE officials can still make "individualized enforcement decisions" taking into consideration the circumstances in each case.
"ICE officers have been instructed generally not to arrest or detain pregnant, postpartum, or nursing individuals — though they can still initiate removal proceedings — and not to take enforcement actions against noncitizens who are applying for immigration benefits based on their status as crime victims," MPI said.