Biden Angers Both Left and Right with New Immigration Policy

The reviews were in, and they were harsh: President Biden’s plan to provide “parole” to some asylum seekers, critics said, was an abdication of executive responsibility and an affront to American ideals.

Only there was a twist to the usual Washington partisanship. This time, the criticism was not coming from the president’s entrenched conservative opposition.

President Biden announced last week that up to 30,000 asylum seekers a month from four nations — Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti — could be granted “parole” to live and work in the United States for two years, provided they did not travel to the border with Mexico first. Now the detractors were progressives — advocates, activists, legislators — who usually side with the White House on policy matters.

For the pro-immigration left, Biden’s plan smacks of the Trump-era restrictions he had denounced while campaigning for the White House. “It is U.S. law that people can apply for asylum, regardless of their nationality or manner of entry,” said Women’s Refugee Commission senior policy adviser Savitri Arvey. “We urge the Biden administration to uphold the right to seek asylum, not expand Trump-era anti-asylum policies,” her statement said.

Read WRC’s statement on the Biden administration’s new border measures.