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Biden Expected to Block Migrants from Asylum at US-Mexico Border

A drone view shows the US-Mexico border wall, in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, US June 3, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/ File Photo
A drone view shows the US-Mexico border wall, in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, US June 3, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/ File Photo
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Biden Expected to Block Migrants from Asylum at US-Mexico Border

A drone view shows the US-Mexico border wall, in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, US June 3, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/ File Photo
A drone view shows the US-Mexico border wall, in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, US June 3, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/ File Photo

US President Joe Biden is expected to sign a sweeping new border measure on Tuesday that would allow authorities to quickly deport or send back to Mexico migrants caught crossing the southwest border if illegal entries surpass a certain level, according to two sources with knowledge of the move.
The measure, which would restrict access to asylum, would take effect when US Border Patrol apprehensions surpass 2,500 per day, the two sources said. The illegal crossings would have to dip below 1,500 per day for the asylum restrictions to be lifted, one of the sources said.
The restrictions are not expected to apply to unaccompanied minors. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The election-year move is expected to trigger legal challenges from immigrant and civil rights groups who have criticized Biden, a Democrat, for adopting hardline policies that mirror those of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, Reuters said.
Biden has toughened his approach to border security as immigration has emerged as a top issue for voting-age Americans in the run-up to Nov. 5 elections where he will face Trump in a rematch of the 2020 contest.
Biden took office in 2021 vowing to reverse some of Trump's restrictive policies but grappled with record levels of migrants caught crossing illegally. Trump has criticized Biden for rolling back his policies and vowed a wide-ranging crackdown if reelected.
The new US restrictions mirror a Biden-backed Senate bill that aimed to block migrants from claiming asylum if the number of migrants caught crossing illegally reached a certain level. The bill was crafted by a bipartisan group of senators but Republicans rejected it after Trump came out in opposition.
The number of migrants caught crossing the US-Mexico border illegally dropped in recent months, a trend US officials partly attribute to increased Mexican enforcement.
Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as Mexico's first female president in a landslide victory on Sunday and will take office on Oct. 1. Biden's border restrictions could put pressure on Sheinbaum, the successor to current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to keep illegal border crossings down.

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Biden’s Long-Awaited Africa Trip to Tout a Win against China

US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs for Luanda, Angola, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, December 1, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs for Luanda, Angola, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, December 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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Biden’s Long-Awaited Africa Trip to Tout a Win against China

US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs for Luanda, Angola, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, December 1, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden boards Air Force One as he departs for Luanda, Angola, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, December 1, 2024. (Reuters)

Joe Biden headed to Angola on Sunday for a trip that will deliver on a promise to visit Africa during his presidency and focus on a major US-backed railway project that aims to divert critical minerals away from China.

The project, partly funded with a US loan, links the resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to the Angolan port of Lobito on the Atlantic Ocean, offering a fast and efficient route for exports to the West.

At stake are vast supplies of minerals like copper and cobalt, which are found in Congo and are a key component of batteries and other electronics. China is the top player in Congo, which has become an increasing concern to Washington.

China signed an agreement with Tanzania and Zambia in September to revive a rival railway line to Africa's eastern coast.

While Biden's trip is taking place in the waning days of his presidency, Donald Trump will likely back the railway and remain a close partner to Angola when he returns to the White House in January, according to two officials who served under the previous Trump administration.

Tibor Nagy, a retired career ambassador and top envoy to Africa under the last Trump administration, said Trump will likely have two overarching concerns regarding Africa. The first is competition with China and Russia, the second is access to critical minerals.

"This checks both boxes," he said in an interview, referring to the Lobito Atlantic Railway.

The project is backed by global commodities trader Trafigura, Portuguese construction group Mota-Engil and railway operator Vecturis. The US Development Finance Corporation has provided a $550 million loan to refurbish the 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) rail network from Lobito to Congo.

Biden was set to land briefly in West Africa's Cape Verde on Monday morning, and meet Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva there before flying on to Angola, the White House said. He will visit the National Museum of Slavery in the capital Luanda during the two-day trip and stop at the Lobito port on Wednesday.

His trip delivers on one of a sweeping set of pledges to Africa. Others remain unrealized, such as gaining two permanent seats for Africa at the UN Security Council.

Beyond the railway project, Washington has also done little to advance access to vast reserves of African minerals it says are critical for national security and has racked up other diplomatic setbacks.

This summer, it lost America's major spy base in Niger and has not been able to find an ally that will host those assets. This leaves the US without a military foothold in the vast Sahel region that has become a hotspot of extremist militancy.

Angola has long nurtured close ties with China and Russia but has recently moved closer to the West. Angolan officials say they are keen to work with any partner that can advance their agenda to promote economic growth and hope the project spurs investment in a range of sectors.

"China has only gained prominence because Western countries have probably not been paying much attention to Africa," Angola's transport minister, Ricardo Viegas d’Abreu, said in an interview.

GROWING TIES WITH ANGOLA

Biden's visit reflects a turnabout in US ties with Angola after a complicated and bloody history. The US and the Soviet Union backed rival sides in the nation's 27-year civil war. Washington established relations with Angola in 1993, almost two decades after it gained independence.

"It's probably poetic justice that the United States should finance the rehabilitation of this route to which it had contributed destruction so many decades ago," said Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, a former Zambian government minister who also ran part of the railway that is to form the Lobito corridor.

Biden administration officials have said the Lobito rail project is not a one-off, but a test run to prove the private-public partnership works, and it will lead to other major infrastructure projects in Africa. They also hope it will deepen US ties with Angola, including in security cooperation.

Critics have questioned whether the project, which has no date for completion, will deliver the promised goals. A particular source of scrutiny is a second phase which would connect the railway to Africa's east coast through to Tanzania, potentially offering a rival route to China.

Judd Devermont, until recently Biden’s top Africa adviser, said Congo wants to diversify its mining partners and rejected the idea that connecting the project to an eastern port in Tanzania undermines the effort to loosen Beijing’s grip on Congo's minerals.

“The Congolese have been very clear that they don’t want to see their entire mining sector dominated by China,” he said in an interview. “It benefits everyone if there’s an easy way to move across the continent, whether that’s critical minerals or just moving stuff from India to Brazil to New York.”