What will President Biden's executive action mean for migrants who have come to Chicago?
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A new executive action issued Tuesday by President Joe Biden executive order will not affect asylum seekers who are already in Chicago – but there could indeed be changes in Chicago moving forward.
The executive action authorizes U.S. immigration officials to deport large numbers of migrants without processing their asylum claims.
Mr. Biden's aggressive move suspends the processing of asylum claims between official entry points along the southern border, allowing U.S. authorities to more quickly reject and deport migrants who enter the country unlawfully.
So what does the action change, and what does it mean for Chicago?
The order means immigration officials can deport migrants at the border. without processing their asylum claims, once the number of border crossings goes over 2,500 a day. For perspective, last month, Border Patrol was averaging 3,800 crossings daily.
The order will remain in place until the number of crossings has dropped below 1,500 for two weeks.
"For cities like Chicago, and more not-bordering cities, it's that if we stop the flow coming into the country, then it should have a trickle effect of not many individuals moving into Chicago," said immigration attorney Hector Quiroga.
"The people who are already in Chicago—they won't have an immediate effect," Quiroga said. "The only thing is maybe a trickle effect—that maybe the cases may be bumped out because we want to hear those cases first."
Quiroga is an immigration attorney with offices across the country. He is working with people in Chicago right now.
In a virtual interview, Quiroga said this move has been long anticipated, will be contested, and will make his job more difficult. But he said it is also timely on the president's part.
"Why the president is trying to do an executive action now, right before the election—to be able to say to his base, 'Look I was tough on immigration.' This is not good for immigrants. So immigrant and pro-immigrant groups are saying, 'This is not what you promised,'" Quiroga said, "but he's very motivated by the election and what is coming up."
Unaccompanied children are exempt from the executive action—which is officially in effect after midnight.
Chicago pastor, asylum seekers, congresswoman react to order
In the last year, 70 migrants have called the Starting Point Community Church in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood home. Pastor Jonathan de la O converted a church building into a shelter for asylum seekers arriving in Chicago – 22 remained there as of Tuesday.
"For me, like in the biblical terms, I'm like, come, we want to help anyone in need," said de la O.
De la O said he is torn when it comes to President Biden's plan restricting asylum claims along the border – citing what he calls conditions that are sometimes inhumane.
"Seeing like the situation – and going outside shelters, and seeing, you know, some of these images that I'm seeing - it might be a good thing to stop the bleeding a little bit, or at least be able to come up with a better system within the city and within our nation," said de la O.
At Starting Point Church, residents Cristian and Raul weighed in on the new policy. Both are asylum seekers from Venezuela. They said they are concerned families who are traveling across several countries to claim asylum in the U.S. might get turned away.
But both favor a more efficient immigration process that does not leave migrants waiting sometimes for months at police stations or shelters.
Meanwhile, some Democratic leaders, including U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago), pushed back on the move Tuesday.
"Leaving them stuck at the Mexican border is not going to change the circumstances that they need to seek asylum," said Ramirez.
In a statement, Mayor Brandon Johnson called on Congress to work with the president on immigration reform.
Many progressive leaders and advocacy groups have also taken issue with the plan. They have called for help to navigate the immigration system instead of restricting it.
The American Civil Liberties Union has already gone on record saying it will challenge President Biden's action in court.
"We need solutions to address the challenges at the border, but the administration's planned executive actions will put thousands of lives at risk," Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer at the ACLU, said in a news release. "They will not meet the needs at the border, nor will they fix our broken immigration system."
The ACLU compared the executive order to a previous entry ban enacted by President Donald Trump – which the organization and its partners successfully defeated in court.
"We intend to challenge this order in court. It was illegal when Trump did it, and it is no less illegal now," Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in the release.
A Chicago local group, the National Immigrant Justice Center, also denounced President Biden's exec executive order and compared it to the 2018 order by President Trump. NIJC Litigation Director Keren Zwick issued this statement:
"We've been here before. The policies announced today are near replicas of Trump-era asylum bans. Only now, they come from an administration that vowed to protect the right to seek protection and support immigrant communities.
"Immigrants and their advocates will not stand by while this administration adopts inhumane and ineffective policy that violates U.S. and international law. Amidst unprecedented migration challenges across the globe, the United States is choosing to shut out asylum seekers with arbitrary quotas and harsh legal standards. This is both unconscionable and proven to be ineffective in managing humanitarian challenges near the U.S.-Mexico border. We once again urge the Biden Administration to adopt effective solutions that protect the right to seek asylum rather than embrace anti-immigrant and restrictionist policies that violate basic human rights."
