White House immigration plan moves asylum seekers into larger US cities, including LA
With immigration already a big problem at the border, some are worried that the Biden Administration's new plan, which sends migrants further into the country while they await official immigration proceedings, could be problematic.
"It's something that the U.S. has been doing for decades and it comes down to the details. The devil is in the details," said Niels Frenzen, with the University of Southern California's Gould Immigration Clinic.
The new proposal is expected to begin in the next several weeks in Los Angeles.
"Los Angeles need not panic," said Andrew Selee, who is with the Migration Policy Institute. "These are the same numbers of people that were headed to Los Angeles and other communities anyway."
Undocumented people coming to LA is not new. Rarely do asylum seekers stay in border cities because the immigration process takes too long, often years. The real problem, according immigration analysts, is the system itself.
"How will people be moved and how will they be treated when they get to Los Angeles or some other city," Frenzen said.
A security spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said, "Should a decision be made, DHS will continue to closely coordinate with and support cities."
"A lot of the people at the border do not want to stay at the border. They're coming to family, friends, elsewhere in the United States," Frenzen said.
If the courts lift a COVID public health order, which has barred asylum seeks for two years, a surge of migrants is expected. Simultaneously, economic troubles in Latin America and a crisis beyond control in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua has pushed people out.
"Right now, you know, the U.S. Government is completely overwhelmed at the border," Selee said.
It's a measure that previous administrations, not just the current one, have implemented to avoid chaos at the border.
