Politics

Healey says she is behind Biden’s asylum ban, breaking from other high-profile Mass. Democrats

Senators Warren and Markey were among the legislators that condemned Biden's executive order, which effectively bans asylum seekers from entering the southern U.S. border.

By Emily Spatz

June 5, 2024

4 minutes to read

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While other leading Democratic elected officials in the state have condemned President Joe Biden’s new executive order severely limiting new asylum claims, Governor Maura Healey indicated she supports the decision. 

“President Biden is stepping up to secure the border while Congress refuses to do its job,” Healey said in a statement to Boston.com Wednesday, adding that the lack of federal action has left states like Massachusetts — which has faced an influx of migrants in the past year largely due to its right to shelter law — in a bind.

Healey’s stance notably diverges from other Democratic leaders in the state, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. While Warren’s response implicated Congress more than Biden, Markey said the move by Biden’s administration is “irresponsible” and “ill-advised.”

“I urge the Biden Administration to change course,” Markey said in a statement.

Biden’s policy, implemented Tuesday, effectively bans asylum seekers from entering the southern U.S. border. It allows migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally to be quickly deported or sent back to Mexico, making them ineligible for asylum consideration. The move comes after Congress repeatedly failed to pass legislation overhauling immigration laws. 

“Unearthing policies of the last administration”: Mass. legislators issue scathing statements

Representative Ayanna Pressley joined Markey and Warren in condemning Biden’s order, saying the current policy is reminiscent of former President Donald Trump’s restrictions on asylum. 

“With all due respect Mr. President, we should not be unearthing policies of the last administration,” she said at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday. 

Though Biden’s restrictions use the same legal statute that Trump’s administration used in limiting asylum seekers in 2018, Biden’s includes exceptions for unaccompanied children, people who face medical or safety threats, and victims of trafficking. 

Both Warren and Markey emphasized the need to implement more policies that allow for legal entry into the U.S., not bar it.

“Pathways to citizenship, fair adjudication of asylum claims, limitations on detention, and more legal pathways to entry – any of these policies would help the executive branch manage the border and the reception of new arrivals in the interior,” Markey said in a statement. “Asylum bans and summary expulsions will only cause more chaos at our border and more desperation in those seeking safety.”

In a statement to Boston.com, Warren said she “understands” Biden’s urgency to make changes at the border but that the country can “do better than a functional ban on asylum.” 

As the number of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border booms, Biden’s administration said the ban will ensure immigration officers have the time and capacity to “quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States.” Biden also pointed to a lack of “pre-existing infrastructure” and resources to sustain the growing number of migrants coming into the country. 

Pressley said during her press conference there is “no deficit of resources in this country.”

“We can invest the resources necessary to address the asylum backlog and help states like Massachusetts support our new arrivals,” Pressley said. 

Healey says Congress needs to “step up”

Healey said congressional inaction on the migrant crisis has left Massachusetts needing to go “above and beyond” to address the issue. 

“It is not sustainable and we need Congress to finally step up and act, now,” she said in a statement to Boston.com.

The scope of the crisis is increasingly evident in both the state’s and nation’s immigration court backlog. In Massachusetts, the current number of pending cases is over 160,000, the seventh highest among all states. In the country, that number tops 3.5 million.

Massachusetts is the only state in the country to have a right-to-shelter law, which is available to qualifying families with children or pregnant people, including migrants. The shelter system has faced increasing pressure over the past year, in large part because of an influx of migrants coming into the state.

Healey’s administration has overseen a major emergency expansion of the state’s family shelter system, with hotels and other buildings in communities across the state being used to house migrants and other homeless families. Under Healey, the state has also implemented a cap on the number of families in the state system and a time limit for stays for the first time since the law was signed in 1983.

What does Biden’s asylum executive order do?

The executive order will be in effect — and ease up — depending on the volume of migrants arriving at the southern border. The ban will go into effect when daily average arrests at the border top 2,500 for seven days in a row and pause when arrests drop below a daily average of 1,500 for three weeks, according to the White House.

Currently, arrests at the border far surpass that number, averaging 4,300 per day in April, Reuters reported, meaning the ban went into effect almost immediately Tuesday night.

Under U.S. law, asylum seekers must be physically present in the U.S. or at an official port of entry in order to apply for asylum. Those seeking protection must be fleeing from persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.