Q24N (VOA) U.S. President Joe Biden announced Thursday measures to crack down on migrants seeking to enter the United States without authorization from Mexico while offering a new pathway to legal entry for up to 30,000 people a month from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti.
The measures will make it easier for border authorities to quickly expel migrants who enter the U.S. between legal crossing points and revive country agreements where would-be asylum-seekers, who passed through a third country, must show they failed to receive protections there before asking for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, individuals in the four named countries will be allowed to apply for legal entry to the United States from abroad under the humanitarian parole authority now being used to admit some refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Biden officials touted the plan as a pathway to legally allow migrants to travel to the U.S. in an orderly, safe manner. But immigration advocates countered that the policies inappropriately limited asylum protections guaranteed under U.S. and international law.
During a news conference at the White House, Biden said the humanitarian parole measure would allow migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti who have U.S.-based financial sponsors to legally enter the country through a program modeled on the Ukraine program and an earlier Venezuelan program. Those programs allow migrants to travel by air to the U.S. if they have sponsors and pass background checks.
“These actions alone that I’m announcing today aren’t going to fix our immigration system, but they can help us a good deal. … I can only act where I have the legal capacity to do so,” Biden said.