Legal Experts Question the Biden Administration’s Compliance with US Immigration Laws

The ongoing crisis at the southern border of the United States has been a contentious issue for several years, with various administrations attempting to address the problem through legislation. However, recent efforts to pass a bipartisan bill aimed at securing the border and addressing some of the major contributing factors to the crisis have failed. Legal experts have weighed in on the situation, questioning whether the Biden administration is flouting US immigration laws.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lt. Chris Olivarez recently joined Neil Cavuto on Fox News to discuss the latest efforts from Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott to secure the southern border. Olivarez stated that the Senate bill did nothing on border security and failed to address critical asylum reforms. House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed these sentiments, stating that the bill expands work authorizations for illegal aliens while failing to include asylum reforms and allowing illegals to be released from physical custody, effectively endorsing the Biden administration’s catch-and-release policy.

The catch-and-release policy, which has been challenged by Republican attorneys general, refers to the idea of letting immigrants await asylum processing into the interior as opposed to being sent to a detention facility. Critics argue that this policy flouts existing immigration laws and incentivizes more illegal immigration. Gene Hamilton, vice president and counsel for America First Legal, stated that the Senate bill would have given the Biden administration “top cover to continue his catch-and-release policies to an even greater degree.”

However, Erin Corcoran, executive director for the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at Notre Dame, argues that the nation’s current asylum process is not as cut and dried as some make it out to be. She explains that there are asylum seekers and people crossing the border without valid immigration status, and the Department of Homeland Security operates similarly to police departments in big cities that have to prioritize which crimes to prosecute based on severity and available resources.

Corcoran notes that one of the biggest challenges to the immigration system is the asylum backlog. The Senate bill wouldn’t necessarily have provided mechanisms to enforce existing laws as much as it would have changed some things about asylum law that make it possible to adjudicate asylum claims at the border and create a more stringent standard by which people get admitted to the country.

Josh Blackman, a law professor at South Texas College of Law, questions whether the Biden administration is using all of the resources at its disposal to vigorously enforce the law without the Senate passing the bill. He suggests that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas is using broad conceptions of prosecutorial discretion to not prioritize removal as the Trump administration did.

In conclusion, the ongoing crisis at the southern border and the failure of the bipartisan bill to address the issue has led to questions about the Biden administration’s compliance with US immigration laws. Legal experts argue that the administration is flouting existing laws through its catch-and-release policy and other measures, while others suggest that the administration is not using all of the resources at its disposal to enforce the law. The situation remains complex and contentious, with no clear solution in sight.

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