State of US Immigration Policy Highlighted
On Tuesday, former Biden border adviser Bras Nunez Neto released an opinion piece in the New York Times addressing the state of US immigration policy, which he claims is fundamentally broken and continues to contribute to the ongoing border crisis.
In the article, titled “Want to fix the border? I want to fix the asylum,” Nunez Neto, who previously served as the Secretary Advisor for Border and Immigration Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, specifically detailed the persistent challenges at the US-Mexico border and stressed the urgent need for bipartisan reform. He acknowledged the undeniable increase in illegal crossings during the early years of the Biden administration, particularly peaking in 2021.
He noted that this surge has diminished confidence among Democrats since it failed to effectively tackle the problem. Being closely connected to the nation’s asylum system, he has a unique perspective on the situation.
“Having had a front row view of all this in my role at the Department of Homeland Security,” Nunez Neto wrote, “it’s clear that the border crisis is, in many ways, an asylum crisis. Our outdated immigration laws encourage economic immigrants to exploit asylum processes, leading to prolonged administrative procedures that let them stay and work in the US.”
Nunez Neto further argued that US immigration laws, established several decades ago when the focus was primarily on seasonal labor from Mexico, are no longer relevant. The current system, he suggested, compels immigrants to pursue asylum instead of utilizing legal and temporary labor pathways, resulting in a complex and unworkable status quo.
Real reform, he emphasized, must come from Congress, even after numerous efforts by both Democratic and Republican administrations to handle immigration primarily through enforcement. He expressed disappointment that both parties have allowed immigration to remain a divisive political topic instead of tackling the root structural issues.
Currently, House lawmakers are investigating the influence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in exacerbating the illegal immigration crisis during the Biden administration. This inquiry follows a record border crisis, with 2023 and 2024 witnessing the highest number of immigrant encounters in recent years, as reported by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Data from CBP indicates that the Biden-Harris administration processed around 8.5 million immigrant encounters along the US-Mexico border over four fiscal years. According to a New York Times analysis, this represents the largest net migration in US history, surpassing migration surges from the 1800s and early 1900s.
While President Donald Trump had managed to restore some order at the border, questions linger regarding the crisis’s progression and its funding sources. GOP members of the House Homeland Security Committee have alleged that various NGOs have received substantial funding from the Biden administration while also facilitating the illegal immigration flow.
