April 27, 2023 Dear John, Facing a dramatically different reality that will arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border with the end of a pandemic-era policy that has resulted in more than 3 million expulsions, the Biden administration has just unveiled a policy vision that marries expanded humanitarian and legal pathways with stiff consequences for those seeking to enter without authorization. The strategy, which seeks to incentivize legal movements and disincentivize unauthorized arrivals, has the potential to meet the huge challenges ahead, Migration Policy Institute (MPI) analysts write in a new commentary. But, as Senior Fellow Doris Meissner and colleagues note, the approach will succeed only if more robust border asylum processing that results in speedier but fair decisions can be put in place. Success also hinges on addressing the significant border and asylum processing capacity needs faced by the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration components, alongside much-needed resource increases for a U.S. immigration court system struggling with massive backlogs. “The administration is attempting to fix the plane while flying it—its only realistic option under the circumstances,” they write. “With overwhelming migrant arrivals, the focus on processing has and will likely continue to be all-consuming. But for border enforcement to ultimately succeed in a post-Title 42 era, similar levels of effort must be directed at deciding asylum cases, rather than adding them to immigration court caseloads that will not be decided for years and are, in the meantime, incentivizing people to apply for asylum even if they have only modest or nonexistent grounds.” You can read the commentary here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/post-title-42-vision-migration-management. Best regards,  Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications and Public Affairs
Migration Policy Institute |
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| The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to analysis of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more on MPI, please visit www.migrationpolicy.org. |
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