IMMIGRATION

How the Recent Bipartisan Assault on Migrants Happened

After promising to get to the root causes of migration to the US, the Biden administration instead accepted far-right policy ideas that would harm many asylum-seekers

Arturo Dominguez
Momentum
Published in
6 min readFeb 14, 2024

--

Photo by Elijah Mears on Unsplash

The National Security Supplemental Budget package which included funding for wars in Ukraine and Israel would have rewritten asylum laws and given presidents unprecedented power to close the border to migrants. In addition to funding increases that will benefit the private prison industry, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the bill was focused on ending what is referred to as “catch and release” — a term used by hunters and fisherman.

It also had a strong focus on expanding what Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) called “detain and deport” policies initially proposed by far-right Republicans in Congress.

The package would have given the private prison industry an additional $3 billion, CBP an extra $6.7 billion, and ICE a whopping $7.6 billion to conduct broad and mass deportations in addition to raising the standards by which asylum-seekers can claim asylum. It also granted United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asylum…

--

--

Momentum
Momentum

Published in Momentum

Momentum is a blog that captures and reflects the moment we find ourselves in, one where rampant anti-Black racism is leading to violence, trauma, protest, reflection, sorrow, and more. Momentum doesn’t look away when the news cycle shifts.

Arturo Dominguez
Arturo Dominguez

Written by Arturo Dominguez

Journalist covering Congress, Racial Justice, Human Rights, Cuba, Texas | Editor: The Antagonist Magazine |

No responses yet