拜登推出数月来一直在酝酿的庇护限制措施，以帮助“控制”边境
【中美创新时报2024 年 6 月 4 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）拜登总统周二公布了立即对在美墨边境寻求庇护的移民实施重大限制的计划，因为白宫试图在 11 月大选前消除移民作为政治负担。对此，美联社作了下述详细报道。
当美国官员认为南部边境不堪重负时，这项期待已久的总统声明将禁止移民获得庇护。在国会两党边境安全协议破裂后，这位民主党总统几个月来一直在考虑采取单边行动，而大多数共和党议员在前总统唐纳德·特朗普（共和党总统候选人）的要求下拒绝了这项协议。
拜登表示，他更愿意通过立法采取更持久的行动，但“共和党人让我别无选择”。相反，他说他是在独自行动“控制边境”，同时坚称“我相信移民一直是美国的命脉”。
拜登说，特朗普“告诉共和党人……他不想解决这个问题，他想用它来攻击我”。 “这是一个玩世不恭、极其玩世不恭的政治举动，完全伤害了美国人民，他们希望我们不是把边境武器化，而是修复它。”
另一方面，特朗普利用他的社交媒体账户再次就移民问题攻击拜登，称民主党“完全放弃了我们的南部边境”，他的命令在 6 月 27 日的总统辩论前“完全是做秀”。
据高级政府官员称，当入境口岸之间的边境冲突次数达到每天 2,500 次时，该命令将生效。这意味着拜登的命令应该立即生效，因为现在的日均人数更高了。上一次因非法越境墨西哥而被捕的日均人数低于 2,500 人是在 2021 年 1 月，也就是拜登上任的那个月份。上一次边境冲突人数降至每天 1,500 人是在 2020 年 7 月，当时正值新冠疫情最严重时期。
这些限制措施将持续有效，直到入境口岸之间的日均冲突人数低于或等于 1,500 人（低于七天平均值）两周后。美联社于周一首次报道了这些数据。
国土安全部表示，自去年 12 月底高层双边会晤以来，加强了对墨西哥的执法力度，减少了非法越境，但“随着时间的推移，效果可能会减弱”，因此需要采取更多行动。 “走私网络具有很强的适应性，能够根据变化做出反应，”该部门在周二发布的联邦规则中表示。
该部门预测，从 7 月到 9 月，因非法越境而被捕的人数可能会上升到平均每天 6,700 人。
一旦该命令生效，抵达边境但没有表达对返回祖国的恐惧的移民将在几天甚至几小时内被立即驱逐出美国。这些移民可能面临惩罚，包括五年内不得再次进入美国，甚至受到刑事起诉。
与此同时，任何表达恐惧或寻求庇护意图的人都将接受美国庇护官员的筛查，但标准比目前更高。如果他们通过了筛查，他们可以寻求更有限的人道主义保护，包括联合国禁止酷刑公约。
“我们很不安地看到本届政府提高了前往我们南部边境并行使合法权利的寻求庇护者的门槛，”全球避难所总裁兼首席执行官克里什·奥马拉·维格纳拉贾 (Krish O’Mara Vignarajah) 表示。“当然，没有人希望看到那些可能是为了寻求更好的生活或经济机会而来的移民利用庇护制度，但我们在我们的客户和其他移民身上看到了人们在全球移民史无前例的时期逃离最可怕的环境，并相信美国仍然是希望和避难所的灯塔。”
周二在边境，没有明显的迹象表明立即受到影响。
住在墨西哥雷诺萨移民收容所的海地母亲伊斯兰德·佩拉尔塔和她 3 岁的儿子说，美国有权实施新的限制措施。10 个月来，她一直在尝试通过美国海关和边境保护局的在线应用程序 CBP One 预约。26 岁的佩拉尔塔不会考虑非法越境，她认为 CBP One 是她最好的选择。
“即使我疯了，我也不会过河。我怎么能带着像他这么小的孩子过河呢？我愿意等待，”她说。
拜登的指令是在边境遇到的移民数量自 12 月以来持续下降之际发布的，但高级政府官员表示，移民数量仍然太高，在天气好转时可能会激增，这是很正常的。
然而，关于拜登指令将如何实施，仍存在许多问题和复杂情况。
例如，美国政府已经与墨西哥达成协议，墨西哥同意在古巴、海地、尼加拉瓜和委内瑞拉公民被美国拒绝入境后，每月接收多达 30,000 名公民，美国政府高级官员表示，根据该命令，这一安排将继续下去。但目前尚不清楚，根据拜登的指令，其他国家的公民被拒绝入境后会发生什么。
四名要求匿名向记者描述这一努力的高级政府官员承认，由于国会资金不足，拜登迅速驱逐移民的目标变得复杂。在拘留移民家庭方面，政府也面临某些法律限制，政府表示将继续遵守这些义务。
拜登援引的法律权力来自《移民和国籍法》第 212(f) 条，该条允许总统限制某些移民入境，如果他们的入境被认为“有损”国家利益。尽管知名法律团体威胁要就该指令提起诉讼，但高级官员表示有信心能够执行拜登的命令。
“我们打算起诉，”美国公民自由联盟的律师李·格勒恩特 (Lee Gelernt) 在特朗普担任总统期间成功辩护了类似的法律挑战。“禁止庇护是非法的，就像特朗普尝试过但没有成功一样。”
高级政府官员坚称，拜登的提议与特朗普的提议截然不同，特朗普的提议依赖于拜登正在使用的《移民和国籍法》的相同条款，包括特朗普 2017 年禁止穆斯林占多数国家公民入境的指令以及他在 2018 年打击庇护的努力。
拜登的命令概述了几类因人道主义原因将获得豁免的移民，包括人口贩运的受害者、无人陪伴的未成年人和有严重医疗紧急情况的人。
该指令还将豁免使用 CBP One 应用程序在入境口岸与边境官员预约的移民。每天大约有 1,450 人使用该应用程序进行预约，该应用程序于去年推出，允许移民提出庇护申请。
移民倡导者担心拜登的计划只会增加已经等待通过该应用程序预约的移民积压数月的情况，尤其是在移民当局没有相应资金激增的情况下。
国家移民论坛主席珍妮·默里 (Jennie Murray) 表示，由于许多特工已经负责帮助庇护所和其他人道主义任务，边境官员可能很难迅速遣返移民。
“海关和边境保护局无法跟上目前的逮捕速度，因为他们没有足够的人员，所以会造成更多的混乱，”她说。
共和党人认为拜登的命令只不过是“政治噱头”，旨在在选举前展示加强移民执法。
“他一直试图让我们所有人相信，他不可能解决这个烂摊子，”共和党众议院议长迈克·约翰逊在新闻发布会上说。“记住，是他策划了这一切。”
在特朗普竞选团队组织的电话会议中，特朗普白宫高级顾问斯蒂芬·米勒（他策划了特朗普最具两极化的移民政策）和前特朗普政府移民和海关执法局代理局长汤姆·霍曼表示，拜登的命令实际上将允许每天 2,500 人入境，并使非法入境美国合法化。
“他们这样做的唯一原因是选举，”霍曼说。“他们有三年半的时间采取行动，却什么也没做，”他说。“他们没有采取任何措施来减缓移民流动。”
民主党参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默表示，立法本来会更有效，但“共和党的顽固态度迫使总统不得不采取行动。”
美联社记者埃利奥特·斯帕加特在圣地亚哥和法蒂玛·侯赛因在空军一号上对本报告做出了贡献。
题图：拜登总统就备受期待的旨在关闭庇护申请的行政命令发表讲话。（电视截屏）
附原英文报道：
Biden rolls out asylum restrictions, months in the making, to help ‘gain control’ of the border
By The Associated PressUpdated June 4, 2024, 6:44 p.m.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead the November elections.
The long-anticipated presidential proclamation would bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. The Democratic president had contemplated unilateral action for months after the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at the behest of former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Biden said he preferred more lasting action via legislation but “Republicans have left me no choice.” Instead, he said he was acting on his own to “gain control of the border” while also insisting that “I believe immigration has always been the lifeblood of America.”
Trump “told the Republicans … that he didn’t want to fix the issue, he wanted to use it to attack me,” Biden said. “It was a cynical, extremely cynical, political move and a complete disservice to the American people who are looking for us not to weaponize the border but to fix it.”
Trump, on the other hand, used his social media account to assail Biden again over immigration, saying the Democrat had “totally surrendered our Southern Border” and his order was “all for show” ahead of their June 27 presidential debate.
The order will go into effect when the number of border encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500 per day, according to senior administration officials. That means Biden’s order should go into effect immediately, because the daily averages are higher now. Average daily arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico were last below 2,500 in January 2021, the month that Biden took office. The last time the border encounters dipped to 1,500 a day was in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The restrictions would be in effect until two weeks after the daily encounter numbers are at or below 1,500 per day between ports of entry, under a seven-day average. Those figures were first reported by The Associated Press on Monday.
Homeland Security said increased enforcement with Mexico since high-level bilateral meetings in late December has lowered illegal crossings but is “likely to be less effective over time,” creating a need for more action. “Smuggling networks are adaptable, responding to changes put in place,” the department said in a federal rule published Tuesday.
The department predicts that arrests for illegal crossings may climb to a daily average as high as 6,700 from July through September.
Once this order is in effect, migrants who arrive at the border but do not express fear of returning to their home countries will be subject to immediate removal from the United States, within a matter of days or even hours. Those migrants could face punishments that could include a five-year bar from reentering the U.S. or even criminal prosecution.
Meanwhile, anyone who expresses that fear or an intention to seek asylum will be screened by a U.S. asylum officer but at a higher standard than currently used. If they pass the screening, they can pursue more limited forms of humanitarian protection, including the U.N. Convention Against Torture.
“We’re troubled to see this administration raise the bar on asylum seekers who are coming to our southern border and exercising a legal right,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge. “Certainly no one wants to see migrants who may be coming to seek a better life or for economic opportunity game the asylum system, but we see in our clients and in other immigrants people who are fleeing the most dire of circumstances at a time of unprecedented global migration and believe that the U.S. is still a beacon of hope and refuge.”
At the border Tuesday, there were no visible signs of immediate impact.
Iselande Peralta, a Haitian mother staying at a migrant shelter in Reynosa, Mexico, with her 3-year-old son, said the U.S. was within its rights to enforce new restrictions. She has been trying for 10 months to get an appointment through U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s online app, called CBP One. Peralta, 26, wouldn’t consider crossing illegally and considers CBP One her best option.
“Even if I was crazy, I wouldn’t cross the river. How would I do that with a child as young as him? I’m willing to wait,” she said.
Biden’s directive is coming when the number of migrants encountered at the border have been on a consistent decline since December, but senior administration officials say the numbers are still too high and could spike in better weather, as is typical.
Yet many questions and complications remain about how Biden’s directive would be implemented.
For instance, the administration already has an agreement with Mexico in which Mexico agrees to accept up to 30,000 citizens a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela once they are denied entry from the U.S., and senior administration officials say that will continue under this order. But it is unclear what happens to nationals of other countries who are denied under Biden’s directive.
Four senior administration officials, who insisted on anonymity to describe the effort to reporters, acknowledged that Biden’s goal of deporting migrants quickly is complicated by insufficient funding from Congress to do so. The administration also faces certain legal constraints when it comes to detaining migrant families, and the administration said it would continue to abide by those obligations.
The legal authority being invoked by Biden comes under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows a president to limit entries for certain migrants if their entry is deemed “detrimental” to the national interest. Senior officials expressed confidence that they would be able to implement Biden’s order, despite threats from prominent legal groups to file lawsuits over the directive.
“We intend to sue,” Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who successfully argued similar legal challenges when Trump was president. “A ban on asylum is illegal, just as it was when Trump unsuccessfully tried it.”
The senior administration officials insisted that Biden’s proposal differs dramatically from that of Trump, who leaned on the same provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that Biden is using, including Trump’s 2017 directive to bar citizens of Muslim-majority nations and his efforts in 2018 to clamp down on asylum.
Biden’s order outlines several groups of migrants who would be exempted due to humanitarian reasons, including victims of human trafficking, unaccompanied minors and those with severe medical emergencies.
The directive would also exempt migrants who make appointments with border officials at ports of entry using the CBP One app. About 1,450 appointments are made a day using the app, which launched last year to allow migrants to make asylum claims.
Immigration advocates worry that Biden’s plan would only increase an already monthslong backlog of migrants waiting for an appointment through the app, especially when immigration authorities do not have an accompanying surge of funding.
It could also be difficult for border officials to quickly remove migrants when many agents are already tasked with helping in shelters and other humanitarian tasks, said Jennie Murray, the president of the National Immigration Forum.
“Customs and Border Protection cannot keep up with apprehensions as it is right now because they don’t have enough personnel so it would cause more disorder,” she said.
Republicans dismissed Biden’s order as nothing more than a “political stunt” meant to show toughened immigration enforcement ahead of the election.
“He tried to convince us all for all this time that there was no way he could possibly fix the mess,” GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference. “Remember that he engineered it.”
In a call organized by Trump’s campaign, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser in Trump’s White House who orchestrated his most polarizing immigration policies, and Tom Homan, former acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the Trump administration, said Biden’s order essentially would allow 2,500 people into the country a day and legalize the illegal entry into the U.S.
“The only reason they’re doing this is because of the election,” Homan said. “They’ve had three and a half years to take action and done nothing,” he said. “They’ve done nothing to slow the flow.”
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said legislation would have been more effective, but “Republican intransigence has forced the president’s hand.”
Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego and Fatima Hussein on Air Force One contributed to this report.
