By Ariama C. Long, Report for America Corps Member | New York Amsterdam News

U.S. Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, along with U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton from Arizona, recently took a two-day trip to the southern border to learn about the current asylum seeker backlog from the frontlines. Meeks favors the bipartisan Senate compromise bill on border security.

The federal government is fragmented when it comes to immigration reform. Republicans in Congress have been screaming to the heavens about the migrant crisis for a long time, which made it all the stranger when they came out against the recent $118 billion Senate proposal on border security that included Ukraine and Israel aid, according to PBS NewsHour. The bill passed in the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support.

Meeks said he wants long-term immigration reform and doesn’t feel like the answer lies in emergency executive orders from President Joe Biden. He condemned House Republicans for pulling a “political stunt” and not following through on actual reforms.

“MAGA Republicans and Speaker Johnson don’t really want to do anything to stop it as we saw when the Senate came up with a bipartisan bill,” said Meeks upon his return at a virtual press conference. “We should do our job, and that’s why you saw Democrats putting people over politics and trying to work together with Republicans moving in the direction that Senator McConnell and other Republicans have said in a way that they’ve never seen before.”

He added that compassion and coordination is needed on state and city levels for migrants that are already here as well.

The Senate border bill is technically called Senate Amendment 1386 to H.R. 815, under the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024. Besides controversial wartime funding to other countries, the bill aimed to move most new asylum cases to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Citizenship and Immigration Services instead of through immigration judges under the Department of Justice (DOJ). The idea was to increase intake and speed up case reviews.

Other reforms in the bill include clear proof of persecution from asylum seekers at the initial interview, possible rejection if an asylum seeker has a criminal history or was living safely beforehand, a shortened 90-day hearing and appeals process, new detention beds, the removal of detainment measure if someone arrives through an established port of entry, and a new “trigger”
border emergency authority based on the average number of migrant crossings. Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans are still under the humanitarian parole program and unaccompanied minors will be permitted into the country.

“We need to stop the surge. There are too many people crossing the border but we should be able to do that. That’s our job as members of Congress,” said Meeks.

New York City has seen about 180,000 migrants and asylum seekers sent to the city over the last two years, according to city numbers. The situation has become so dire that dozens of migrants were found living on top of each other in an illegal basement apartment in the Bronx just last week. This comes after Mayor Eric Adams started sending out 30- and 60-day eviction notices to migrants in the city’s shelter system.

Local organizations and the city are split on their views on the Senate border bill. Most nonprofits on the frontlines of the migrant crisis are dead set against the bill, while Adams is all for it.

African Communities Together National Policy Director Diana Konaté said that the organization is flat-out opposed to HR 815. She said they will oppose any attempts to restrict asylum at the borders. “While we were pleased that the border language ultimately failed to move out of the Senate, we were very disappointed to see many of our allies in the Senate support those cruel border provisions,” Konaté said in a statement. “We are now alarmed at reports that the Biden administration is considering executive actions as a way to accomplish what it couldn’t do with Congress.”

New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) Director of Immigrant Rights Policy C. Marlene Galaz explained that the Senate border bill continues a troubling pattern of “elected officials scapegoating immigrant communities” and failing to provide humane solutions. She said the bill would virtually eliminate due process for asylum seekers by completely removing the asylum system from the judicial system. Additionally, she said it would dramatically raise the standards of asylum, making it virtually impossible for people seeking protection to qualify. Galaz suggested that immigration reform should create pathways to legalization and permanence for newly arrived asylum seekers and established immigrant communities. She championed more humane treatment for those at the southern border.

“What is needed now more than ever from the Biden administration is to ensure that any border security executive actions protect due process for asylum seekers and provide resources for a fair, efficient, and humane asylum system,” said NYIC Executive Director Murad Awawdeh. “The cruel measures being proposed collectively create a government-mandated asylum ban, which even border officials contend will only create more chaos at the southern border while failing to address the real issue at hand.”

Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy said at a press conference on March 5 that “far-right Republicans” refuse to do anything on immigration reform because it’s a presidential election year, echoing Meeks’ sentiments.

Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about politics for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visitinghttps://bit.ly/amnews1.

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