President Biden recently announced a sweeping executive order that will essentially shut down the border once a daily threshold is met. But with ongoing Congressional dispute over budgets, experts and migrants alike are questioning how the rule will be enforced without additional funding.
Three agents involved in enforcing the measure told NBC News there is confusion over what to do with thousands of migrants who will now be deported but whose countries will not accept them back, such as migrants from Venezuela, China and elsewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Since December, the number of migrants crossing the border has decreased, with experts citing Mexico's increased efforts at preventing migrants from reaching the U.S. But under the new order, it is not yet known if Mexico will take migrants back since they cannot claim asylum and cannot be deported.
At the same time, several Department of Homeland Security officials responsible for carrying out the action, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there is concern that detention facilities and processing centers for migrants could quickly become overcrowded.
NBC News also reports that it is not yet known where the Biden administration will hold a vast number of detained migrants— possibly tens of thousands— until they are deported, since Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not have the capacity or authority to indefinitely detain migrants.
While these questions remain virtually unanswered, at a press conference this week, Department of Homeland Security officials said the agency will be sending resources to the border in the coming weeks. They said the new policies should reduce the time it takes to process migrants by 30 to 45 minutes, in order to free up more space to hold migrants in custody.
Officials also said migrants will now be given only four hours to find a lawyer to represent them before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers who are making the decision about whether they meet a new, higher standard to seek protection in the United States.
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.
While the order is set to be challenged in court, some migrants have already been deported since the policy went into effect at midnight on Wednesday, NBC News reports.
"We are just going to have to wait and see how this plays out," said one of the senior DHS officials.
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