NEW YORK CITY - President Biden announced on Tuesday a sweeping executive order that will essentially shut down the border after a daily threshold is met. After more than a year of increased immigration-related turmoil in New York City, experts believe the tactic will be able to reduce the influx to one of the territories most affected by this trend.
Since the migrant crisis began in the spring of 2022, more than 200,000 asylum seekers have arrived to New York City's intake immigration system, and more than 65,000 are still under the city's care, according to ABC News.
"In other words, in a little more than two years, a population larger than that of most major U.S. cities has descended on the five boroughs asking for shelter," New York City officials said. "New York City has shown the nation what responding to a national humanitarian crisis humanely looks like, and we are proud that more than 65 percent of those individuals have moved out of our shelter system."
Since 2022, the city has also spent around $4.6 billion on this and continues to operate more than 200 emergency shelters.
And as Biden's executive order comes into place, some policy experts believe it will finally lead to a decrease in the influx of migrants into The Big Apple.
"Whatever we can do to slow the flow and finance and allow people to work, I'm all for it," Mayor Eric Adams told reporters.
The new executive action bars migrants who cross illegally from seeking asylum once a daily threshold is met, unless individuals meet certain exemptions. The measure could be turned on and off and would be lifted when there's a daily average of fewer than 1,500 encounters between ports of entry, CNN reports.
The changes mark Biden's toughest border restrictions yet. It also follows a failed bipartisan border bill blocked by Congress Republicans that would have seen similar measures.
"I'm hopeful at this moment that we will see some real relief in terms of the amount of people that we are getting in through the front door," said Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom, a City Hall leader who is managing the migrant crisis.
The new rule, which is expected to be challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union according to a statement by the group, will not apply to migrants who seek asylum through a federally approved process at a port of entry. It is also unlikely to directly affect migrants already in New York City.
Indirectly, however, the measures will probably complicate family reunification efforts by making it harder to follow family members here, Gothamist reports.
Similarly, the new rules could incite fear among migrants currently living in the city, who may wonder, "this is one executive order. What comes next?" explains Marciana Popescu, a Fordham University professor studying local asylum-seekers.
The unprecedented order is an attempt by the White House to address one of the most urgent problems in his reelection push. It comes just weeks before the first debate between the president and his opponent, former President Donald Trump, is set to take place. The authority is also the same Trump tried to use in office.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
