Back to Trump-Era Border Policies? US May Nab Migrant Families Over Illegal Crossings

Despite desperate attempts by the Biden administration to tackle soaring US southern border encounters, the migration crisis in the country shows no sign of ceasing.

Washington mulls detaining migrant families who cross into the US illegally, in what is seen as a return to Trump-era border policies aimed at tackling refugee flows, an American media outlet has reported.

The outlet quoted unnamed officials as saying that the US Department of Homeland Security is working on measures “to manage” an expected increase of migrants at the border once the COVID­-19 pandemic restrictions that have been in place there since 2020 are lifted in May.

The officials claimed that detaining migrants for short periods of time, perhaps just a few days, is one of several ideas under discussion, with a final decision yet to be announced.

Migrants seeking asylum in the United States ask Texas National Guard agents to let them turn themselves in with Border Patrol agents in the El Paso, Texas, US. border with Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on December 20, 2022

© AFP 2023 / HERIKA MARTINEZ

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, however, declined to comment on “rumors” that the family detention policy was under consideration. “I’m not saying that it is, I’m not saying that it’s not,” she said, refusing to elaborate on President Joe Biden’s stance on the matter.

Jean-Pierre rejected criticism that Biden was ostensibly reinstating some of the policies pursued by his predecessor Donald Trump, saying, “A lot of people have compared what the president is doing – is either extending what Trump did or being very Trump-like. That is not what is happening here.”

She spoke as Bennie Thompson, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, said that he is “alarmed by news reports that the [Biden] administration is considering reinstating family detention policies.”

“Not only are these policies cruel and harmful to children, but they don’t prevent families from traveling to the United States,” Thompson claimed.

This came after the Biden administration last month announced a crackdown on those seeking asylum after unlawfully entering the US, a new rule that is set to come into force on May 11. The rule stipulates the rapid deportation of anyone who had not first applied for asylum en route to the US.

Immigration rights groups were quick to condemn the measure, which they said runs counter to the “humane immigration system” that the 46th US president promised while campaigning for the White House.

As a presidential candidate, Biden in particular campaigned against family detention under the Trump administration.

“Children should be released from ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention with their parents immediately. This is pretty simple, and I can’t believe I have to say it: Families belong together,” he tweeted in June 2020.

Republican Governor of Texas Greg Abbott has, meanwhile, accused Biden of failing to enforce immigration laws.

"You have violated your constitutional obligation to defend the States against [migrant] invasion through faithful execution of federal laws," Abbott wrote in a letter, which POTUS received upon his arrival at the US-Mexico border in January, his first visit to the area since becoming president two years ago.

US in Grip of Migration Crisis

Right after entering office in early 2021, Biden was adamant about undoing many of Trump's immigration policies, purportedly to offer increased protection and care for asylum seekers and migrants. Such an approach, however, finally turned the US-Mexico border into a festering crisis.

According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, the number of total encounters with illegals at the border during the 2022 fiscal year reached a whopping 2,378,944, while in 2021 it was 1,734,686. For comparison's sake, under then-President Donald Trump the figure stood at 458,088 in 2020 and 977,509 in 2019.

Republicans have repeatedly slammed Biden for the border chaos, and denounced the current administration’s “open border policies” along with the scrapping of a number of the restrictive measures against illegal migrants that were in place under Trump.

Despite dogged insistence that he would undo "everything former President Donald Trump had done" regarding immigration, Biden has been forced to reinstate the 45th president's Remain In Mexico program. POTUS also upheld a policy known as Title 42, used during the pandemic to preemptively remove migrants found at the border after a federal judge in Louisiana blocked the Biden administration from ditching the COVID-19-era health order.