TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — People who trudge through the desert and end up at the border find out immigration law is a lot more complicated than, “you’re in, you’re out.” So we went to talk to an expert immigration lawyer about how Biden’s immigration order looks to him.
“Well, to me, it's obviously, you know, some sort of political stunt that we see quite often in election years.”
Immigration attorney Mo Goldman does not think the President's border order will do much to change the overall immigration system or the mix of people trying to come in.
He does say the idea of stopping asylum seekers when their numbers exceed 25 hundred a day will reduce numbers, especially when combined with tougher standards on someone convincing an asylum officer they have credible fear of persecution if they return to their home country.
“They're going to end up being assessed a higher level of scrutiny for getting what would be considered asylum like they would only qualify under what's called withholding of removal or protection under a convention against torture, which is a much higher threshold and much harder for people to meet.”
And Goldman says most people will have to persuade an asylum officer with their story alone because if they ever had documents they probably could not bring them on a trek across the desert.