President Biden unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections.
The long-anticipated presidential proclamation would bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. The Democratic president had contemplated unilateral action for months after the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at the behest of former President Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.
Here’s a visual report from Times photographer Robert Gauthier along the Southern California border.
Men seeking asylum are detained by Border Patrol after crossing the U.S./Mexico border hours earlier.
After crossing the border, a group of individuals seeking asylum are taken into custody by Border Patrol.
An exhausted family ends a hike of nine-plus hours over Mt. Cuchoma on a fire road near Campo Road after crossing the U.S./Mexico border.
How President Biden’s executive order limiting asylum is playing out on the California-Mexico border.
A Border Patrol agent documents asylum seekers near Campo Road after they crossed the U.S./Mexico border over Mt. Cuchoma.
Migrants wait to board Border Patrol vehicles near Campo Road after crossing the U.S./Mexico border.
Rosario Delia, left, from Chiapas, Mexico, and spouse Gracia Maria from El Salvador, share a moment outside Movimiento Juventud 2000 migrant shelter, where they are living while waiting to apply for asylum in the U.S.
Guadalupe Olinei Razo has her hair done by Alma Tapia from Oaxaca Movimiento inside Juventud 2000, a migrant shelter, where dozens of families seeking asylum are living as they wait to meet with U.S. officials.
Migrants negotiate a fare with a taxi driver at Iris Avenue Station where they and dozens of other asylum seekers were dropped off by Border Patrol.
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