拜登预计将宣布新的边境庇护限制
【中美创新时报2024 年 6 月 4 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）据四名政府官员和知情人士透露，拜登总统计划于周二发布一项命令，当非法越境人数超过每日门槛时，将关闭美国庇护系统的访问权限。《华盛顿邮报》记者Nick Miroff 和 Toluse Olorunnipa 对此作了下述报道。
据这些官员称，一旦超过限额，移民将被遣返回国或墨西哥，并且没有资格获得庇护，这些官员不愿透露姓名，因为他们无权讨论即将颁布的白宫命令。
自今年两党边境立法失败以来，美国政府一直在考虑采取这一举措。该立法将制定类似的触发条件，在美国当局不堪重负时关闭庇护通道。了解该计划的人士表示，他们预计上限将设定为每天平均 2,500 次非法越境。一位官员说，当越境人数降至 1,500 次以下时，标准的庇护处理将恢复。
根据最新的政府数据，最近几周，美墨边境的非法越境人数平均超过 3,500 人，因此拜登的命令可能会立即产生影响。
在冠状病毒大流行的高峰期，美国当局利用公共卫生紧急情况迅速“驱逐”移民并拒绝非法入境的寻求庇护者。官员们表示，拜登预期的命令将以类似的方式运作，而边境特工将继续面临限制，包括缺乏拘留空间、交通能力和庇护官员。
这项失败的边境法案本应为驱逐能力和庇护处理提供数十亿美元的额外资金，但在共和党总统候选人、前总统唐纳德·特朗普表示反对后，共和党议员拒绝了这项法案。
拜登已经采取措施限制非法越境进入美国的移民的庇护申请，但由于边境当局缺乏拘留、筛查或驱逐他们的能力，许多人仍被释放到美国。在其他情况下，移民的祖国不会将他们接回或与美国当局合作驱逐出境。
“对我来说，最大的问题是这是否会带来额外的资源，”华盛顿无党派移民政策研究所的律师兼分析师凯瑟琳·布什-约瑟夫说。“如果没有额外的资金来实施这项法案，过去每一次庇护限制都面临的挑战仍将存在。”
据了解拜登命令的官员称，表示担心被遣返回墨西哥后会遭到迫害的移民仍将符合《禁止酷刑公约》和美国法律提供的其他保护。
墨西哥还限制了从美国接收的非墨西哥移民数量。
随着边境问题对选民越来越重要，总统在边境问题上陷入了政治困境。据战略家称，在他任期内，移民人数激增，虽然时有起伏，但经常超过创纪录水平，这仍然是他最大的政治负担之一。
特朗普不断攻击他所谓的“开放边境”政策和“拜登移民犯罪”，并承诺如果他赢得总统大选，将实施全面打击。
“我们的边境将很快关闭，”特朗普周五在讲话中表示，他抨击移民问题，并谴责他在纽约封口费审判中因伪造商业文件而被判 34 项重罪。
特朗普也曾试图切断移民获得美国庇护保护的渠道，但这些措施在 2019 年被联邦法院阻止。拜登的命令预计将因类似理由受到质疑。
“我们需要在做出诉讼决定之前审查行政命令，但任何有效关闭庇护的政策都会引发明显的法律问题，就像特朗普政府试图结束庇护时一样，”美国公民自由联盟律师李·格勒恩特 (Lee Gelernt) 在周一接受采访时表示，他曾担任特朗普政策多项挑战的首席律师。
自 2021 年以来，美国当局统计，南部边境每年有约 200 万人非法越境，创历史新高，来自中国、印度、委内瑞拉和其他数十个国家的移民数量创下历史新高。这些移民通常在墨西哥犯罪组织的带领下进入美国边境，通常会向美国边境特工投降，并表示担心被遣返后会遭到迫害——这是寻求美国庇护的第一步。
如果越境人数超过每日门槛，拜登的命令将使他们失去庇护保护的资格。
目前的协议允许美国每月将最多 30,000 名非墨西哥人遣送回边境，但墨西哥通常限制遣返中美洲人、古巴人和一些海地人。
周日，墨西哥选民以压倒性优势选出了该国首位女性领导人克劳迪娅·谢因鲍姆，这次投票被广泛视为对现任总统安德烈斯·曼努埃尔·洛佩斯·奥夫拉多尔的公投。将于 10 月 1 日就职的 Sheinbaum 誓言将继续洛佩斯·奥夫拉多尔与美国在移民问题上的合作。
虽然拜登在移民问题上越来越多地采用特朗普所采用的那种语言——包括今年承诺如果边境被非法越境者淹没，将“关闭”边境——但他一直在努力寻找能够满足他所争取的多元化选民联盟的信息。
几位自由派议员批评拜登在边境问题上采取越来越强硬的立场，支持移民的活动人士指责他背叛了美国的核心理想，在特朗普动荡的任期后没有采取更人道的移民政策。
“本届政府决定将移民定为罪犯——其中许多人是为了逃避伤害——令人深感不安和误导，”南方贫困法律中心高级监督律师 Sarah M. Rich 在一份声明中表示。
“起诉在美国寻求安全的人违反移民法将导致更多黑人和棕色人种被监禁，而牺牲移民家庭和社区的利益，”里奇说。
白宫官员表示，拜登将继续探索各种政策选择来应对移民挑战。
白宫发言人安杰洛·费尔南德斯·埃尔南德斯在一份声明中表示：“虽然国会共和党人选择阻碍加强边境执法，但拜登总统不会停止为边境和移民人员提供保护边境所需的资源。”
预计的行政命令表明，一些民主党人计划因特朗普反对的两党边境协议失败而抨击共和党人，但这不太可能使他们免受针对该问题的猛烈攻击。
当该法案在参议院首次失败时，拜登承诺将把这一信息传达给全国，并指责特朗普鼓励立法者否决该协议。
虽然拜登最初在竞选演讲中推动了这一信息，但近几个月来，他的重点已转向弄清楚在没有国会的情况下他能取得多大成就。
白宫官员长期以来一直表示，拜登不能单方面提供保护边境所需的资源，并呼吁国会通过资金和法定改革，以建立更加有序的移民体系。
题图：2023 年 7 月 11 日，人们在亚利桑那州尤马附近从墨西哥越境后，靠着边境墙排队等待申请庇护。GREGORY BULL/美联社
附原英文报道：
Biden expected to announce new asylum restrictions at border
By Nick Miroff and Toluse Olorunnipa The Washington Post,Updated June 3, 2024
President Biden plans to issue an order Tuesday that would shut off access to the U.S. asylum system when illegal border crossings exceed a daily threshold, according to four administration officials and people with knowledge of the plans.
Migrants would be returned to their home countries or Mexico and be ineligible for asylum consideration once the limit is surpassed, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the pending White House order.
The administration has been considering the move since the failure of bipartisan border legislation this year that would have enacted a similar trigger to shut off asylum access at times when U.S. authorities become overwhelmed. People with knowledge of the plans said they expected the cap to be set at a daily average of 2,500 illegal crossings. Standard asylum processing would resume when the number drops below 1,500 crossings, an official said.
Illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border have averaged more than 3,500 in recent weeks, according to the latest government data, so Biden’s order could have immediate effects.
During the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. authorities used a public health emergency to rapidly “expel” migrants and turn away asylum seekers who arrived illegally. Officials said Biden’s expected order will operate similarly, while agents at the border will continue to face limitations, including a lack of detention space, transportation capacity and asylum officers.
The failed border legislation would have provided billions in additional funds for deportation capacity and asylum processing, but Republican lawmakers spurned the bill after former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, came out against it.
Biden has already implemented measures to restrict asylum claims of migrants who cross into the United States illegally, but many continue to be released into the United States because border authorities lack the capacity to detain, screen or deport them. In other cases, migrants’ home countries won’t take them back or cooperate with U.S. authorities on deportations.
“The big question for me is whether this will come with additional resources,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an attorney and analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute in Washington. “Without additional dollars to implement this, the same challenges will remain that each of the past asylum restrictions have faced.”
Migrants who state a fear of persecution if returned to Mexico will remain eligible under the Convention Against Torture and other protections afforded by U.S. law, according to officials with knowledge of Biden’s order.
Mexico also places limits on the number of non-Mexican migrants it will accept from the United States.
The president has been in a political bind over the border, as the issue has become increasingly important for voters. The surge of migration during his term, which has ebbed and flowed but often surpassed record levels, remains one of his largest political liabilities, according to strategists.
Trump has continuously attacked him for what he has described as “open border” policies and “Biden migrant crime,” pledging to enact a sweeping crackdown if he wins the presidency.
“Our borders will be closed very soon,” Trump said Friday, in remarks during which he railed against immigration as well as his 34 felony convictions for falsifying business documents in the New York hush money trial against him.
Trump made a similar attempt to cut off migrants’ access to U.S. asylum protections, but the measures were blocked in federal court in 2019. Biden’s order is expected to be challenged on similar grounds.
“We will need to review the executive order before making litigation decisions, but any policy that effectively shuts off asylum would raise obvious legal problems, just as it did when the Trump administration tried to end asylum,” Lee Gelernt, the ACLU attorney who was lead counsel on many challenges to Trump’s policies, said in an interview Monday.
U.S. authorities have tallied about 2 million illegal crossings per year along the southern border since 2021, the highest levels ever, and migrants have been arriving in record numbers from China, India, Venezuela and dozens of other countries. Often guided to the U.S. border by criminal organizations in Mexico, the migrants typically surrender to U.S. border agents and express a fear of persecution if returned – the first step in seeking U.S. asylum.
Biden’s order would render them ineligible for asylum protections if crossings exceed the daily threshold.
Current agreements allow the United States to send up to 30,000 non-Mexicans back across the border each month, but Mexico has generally limited returns to Central Americans, Cubans and some Haitians.
Mexican voters elected Claudia Sheinbaum, the country’s first female leader, by a landslide margin Sunday in a vote that was widely viewed as a referendum on current President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Sheinbaum, who will be inaugurated Oct. 1, has vowed to continue López Obrador’s cooperation with the United States on migration.
While Biden has increasingly adopted the kind of language embraced by Trump on immigration – including pledging this year to “shut down” the border if it becomes overwhelmed by unauthorized crossings – he has struggled to find a message that can satisfy the diverse coalition of voters he is courting.
Several liberal lawmakers have criticized Biden for his increasingly tough stance on the border, and pro-immigration activists have accused him of betraying core American ideals and not adopting more humane immigration policies after Trump’s turbulent term.
“The decision by this administration to criminalize migrants – many of whom are fleeing harm – is deeply disturbing and misguided,” Sarah M. Rich, senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in a statement.
“Prosecuting people seeking safety in the U.S. for these immigration violations will lead to more Black and Brown people being incarcerated at the expense of immigrant families and communities,” Rich said.
White House officials said Biden will continue to explore various policy options to address the migration challenge.
“While Congressional Republicans chose to stand in the way of additional border enforcement, President Biden will not stop fighting to deliver the resources that border and immigration personnel need to secure our border,” Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesman, said in a statement.
The expected executive order is a signal that the plan of some Democrats to hammer Republicans over the failure of the bipartisan border deal opposed by Trump is unlikely to shield them from a barrage of attacks over the issue.
When the bill failed the first time in the Senate, Biden pledged to take the message across the country and blame Trump for encouraging lawmakers to kill the agreement.
While Biden initially pushed that message in campaign speeches, his focus in recent months has shifted toward figuring out how much he can accomplish without Congress.
White House officials have long said Biden cannot unilaterally provide the resources necessary to secure the border, calling on Congress to pass funding and statutory changes that would create a more orderly migration system.
