A caravan of migrants departing from Honduras for the United States was stopped by Guatemalan security forces on Jan. 18.
President Joe Biden, who has been in office for just over a month, has launched an immigration policy that has already caused an uproar in California’s Chinese community. Last Friday (Feb. 12), Biden announced a plan that would allow tens of thousands of asylum seekers at the border to enter the U.S. early while their cases are being processed; this has renewed the unease of many people. Some criticized him for endangering the legal population of the United States with his “illegal immigrant first” policy.
Since the beginning of 2019, former President Trump has enacted several policies in an attempt to curb executive Amnesty policies for illegal immigrants. One of these policies, known as the “Migrant Protection Protocol” (MPP) or “Stay in Mexico” program, requires asylum seekers to wait for a hearing in a U.S. court in Mexico.
But the Biden Administration just announced a new plan on Friday, but will revoke President Trump’s previous policy. According to the authorities, the first “stay in Mexico” of about 25,000 asylum seekers, will be allowed to enter the United States early on February 19.
In fact, from the first day in office, Biden has signed a series of executive orders in an attempt to reverse President Trump’s strict immigration policy. From ordering a delay in enforcing deportations of illegal immigrants, halting the construction of the border wall, overturning the Muslim travel ban, easing refugee asylum standards, helping reunite (illegal immigrant) families, strengthening protections for Dreamers (DACA), and proposing to provide an 8-year fast track to citizenship for illegal immigrants. This series of policies has caused a caravan of 10,000 people from Honduras and other Central American countries to accelerate their march to the United States.
David Zhang, a resident of Southern California who has become a U.S. citizen, said that when he and his Family immigrated to the United States in the early days, they followed the legal application process step by step and waited for a long Time until their cases were approved before they could enter the country.
Even after we immigrated to the U.S., we worked hard, paid our taxes on time, obeyed the law, and later successfully obtained citizenship, and the whole process took almost 13 years,” he said. But now you say, those who are here illegally, living here, enjoying all kinds of benefits, that is all taxpayer money. It doesn’t make sense that Biden would now give the green light to so many people, so that the vast majority of these people (asylum seekers), who are trying to cross into the U.S. illegally, would enter the U.S. early.”
Mr. Zhang believes that President Trump’s immigration policy is reasonable, and that it is based on the consideration of “Americans First” to prevent the maximum number of illegal immigrants from entering the United States. Now Biden has repeatedly changed and reversed Trump’s policy, which is promoting “illegal immigration first”. “Biden is going in the opposite direction, look at his immigration policies since he took office, they are helping illegal immigrants, but we still have so many legal immigrants in line, and they have been in line for a long time, it’s all ridiculous.”
Lawyer: legal immigrant applications are afraid of being delayed
California Chinese lawyer Liu Fenglan believes that once the government wants to pave the way for the legalization of a certain group of immigrants, it is destined to overwhelm the immigration bureau, which will then affect the progress of other immigrant application cases.
She said, “Especially if Biden wants to prioritize ‘illegal immigrants,’ then all other legal immigrant cases will be delayed because immigration officials need to prioritize the illegal immigrant category of cases. In previous years, once there was something wrong (with immigration policy), such as DACA coming out, many immigration officers would be transferred (to deal with DACA cases), and the cases of ordinary people would either drag on very slowly or stop altogether.”
Under current Biden administration policies, she personally believes that applications for legal immigration cases will be delayed. “And so many executive orders that are protecting illegal immigrants, none of them deal with how to help the high-tech people who are waiting for the lottery and who will contribute to the country in the future, no, it’s very unfair.”
Chinese people worried about personal safety without security
Many people of Chinese descent also said that from the first day of Biden’s rise to power, the term “illegal immigrant caravan” has become a nightmare for many of them.
Recently, a newly released report by members of the House of Representatives Republican Party pointed out that the Biden administration seems ready to adopt a series of new immigration policies and revoke Trump’s immigration policy, which will endanger Americans, reduce border security and internal law enforcement, and increase the risk of criminal composition of foreigners. It would also create a situation that “encourages illegal immigration and an endless influx of foreigners into the United States.
Liu Fenglan believes that the influx of illegal immigrants will increase the crime rate and threaten the personal safety of the people. “This time, the leftists stole so many votes from President Trump and control the media. It feels like America is no longer the original America, not a democratic and free country anymore, and everyone is very worried.”
She said, “Especially California is on the border again, and the government’s policy is to encourage illegal immigration, people (illegal immigrants) first choice will come to California, which is very bad for security. So I know some people who have moved away, many of my friends around me, are also considering moving out, some are looking for which state is better, many are looking for a way out.”
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