Representatives Tom Suozzi of New York and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania on Thursday called on President Biden to end asylum abuses and “bring order to the border” through executive action.
Democrats and Republicans have joined forces to crack down on cartels profiting from the U.S. border crisis and push the White House to extend undocumented work permits for more than 1 million long-term spouses of Americans living in the country. he demanded. Nation.
“Americans want action. Congress failed to act, so now we need a president,” Suozzi declared at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
“The ‘coyotes’ of organized crime are cheating the asylum system, which was established in 1980 to help people leaving the Cold War,” he said.
“Additionally, the 1.1 million undocumented immigrants who have lived here for decades and are married to Americans pay taxes and need work permits to come out of the shadows,” the lawmaker continued.
“We need a wise and enlightened immigration system to support families and protect our borders,” Fitzpatrick added.
“I am proud to work with Congressman Suozzi on a bipartisan letter to President Biden calling for executive action on smart immigration reform to begin repairing our nation’s broken immigration process.”
Lawmakers sent a letter to the president Thursday morning asking him to raise the credible fear standard for vetting immigrants and to prevent all asylum seekers from entering between ports of entry at the border.
“While we are not fleeing persecution today, we have been instructed to tailor our response to meet the low standard of ‘credible fear,'” said Suozzi and Fitzpatrick, according to a copy obtained by the newspaper. The asylum process is being abused by many people.” .
When enacted in 1980, the Refugee Act, which allowed asylum seekers, supported “people fleeing communist or dictatorial regimes.”
“The Coyotes cartel has played a role in directing and guiding desperate migrants from port to port as they enter the United States,” the lawmakers said.
“By teaching immigrants the language necessary for the asylum process, they presented false stories on credible fear tests and gained admission to the United States for years, only to ultimately only to be denied entry by an immigration judge.” Only 18% of people with credible fear claims will be granted asylum by courts in 2023.
“You have broad powers to prevent this abuse by limiting the availability of asylum between ports of entry and by raising credible standards of fear,” Suozzi and Fitpatrick urged.
He also said Biden could use executive authority to grant work permits to spouses of American citizens through a military program that allows service members to change the immigration status of their spouses and parents.
“Exercising this power over spouses of undocumented long-term donors who are married to U.S. citizens would preserve families and expand the taxpayer workforce,” the two wrote. ing. “Furthermore, these work permits for immigrant spouses are estimated to generate $16 billion in growth in U.S. GDP.”
The Biden administration plans to tighten other refugee-related vetting measures early Thursday, as polls show the president lags behind his opponent, former President Donald Trump, on immigration. came out.
House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized the administration’s plan as “window dressing” during an appearance on Fox News Thursday.
“It’s a falsified accounting. We could use section 212F of the Immigration and Nationality Act right now to close the border completely,” Johnson said on “Fox & Friends.”
“He knows he has that authority, and I even read it to President Biden myself. First, he refuses to accept that it’s actually law. But that’s nonsense,” the Speaker said.
“And he has refused to use it. If he really wanted to close the border, he would reinstate Remain in Mexico. Border Patrol says this would reduce flows by 70%.”
Biden’s Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached by House Republicans in February for mishandling the record number of migrants flooding into the United States each year under his administration.
The Democratic-controlled Senate never took up the case.
