The Biden administration has formally unveiled legislation to dramatically reshape the country's immigration laws, allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States.
But with reports of a growing humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border, politicians and experts say it could pose political problems for President Joe Biden.
Last week, the Biden administration announced the Border Patrol has apprehended more than 75,000 people who crossed the border - an increase of six per cent on the previous month.
New families have been gathering in Mexican border towns, hoping they will be able to soon cross into America under the comparatively progressive immigration stance of Mr Biden.
It comes as the new Biden administration seeks to reverse the harsh immigration policies of former president Donald Trump.
Migrants are seeking to cross from Central America into the US in larger numbers, authorities say. Source: picture alliance
Is America facing a 'new border crisis'?
Over the past few weeks, major American news outlets have described the thousands of families travelling towards the country’s southwest as a “new border crisis”.
The New York Times said the influx “poses the first major test of Mr Biden’s pledge to adopt a more compassionate policy along America’s border with Mexico”, noting the large number of migrants - combined with the pandemic - could see a major backlash to the President in his early days.
The Washington Post and Fox News have also referred to it as an "escalating crisis", with the latter criticising Mr Biden for reversing a number of Trump-era policies.
Jared Mondschein, a senior research fellow at the US Studies Centre, said that while the border crisis had potential to became a major challenge for Mr Biden, the President easily has more pressing issues to contend with - namely the COVID-19 pandemic, America’s shrinking economy and a winter storm that’s left millions without electricity.
“The recent surge of thousands of families toward Mexico's border with the United States at this point poses more of a political problem,” he told SBS News.
“But this still could become a significant challenge should the numbers of those seeking to cross the border, as many immigration experts predict, continue to escalate.”
Where exactly does the Biden administration stand on immigration?
The Biden administration has taken a more progressive stance on immigration, with Mr Biden having immediately sought to undo some of former president Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies.
Last week, he announced the US would begin taking in tens of thousands of asylum seekers waiting in Mexico, as the first step in a phaseout of the previous administration’s migrant rules.
As he signed the orders at the White House, Mr Biden said his administration would work to “undo the moral and national shame” of the Trump administration.
Mr Biden has indicated he will stop new construction of his predecessor’s signature wall on the Mexico border.
Joe Biden last week announced the US would begin taking in tens of thousands of asylum seekers waiting in Mexico. Source: picture alliance
He has proposed a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, strengthened protections for eligible Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipients, and sought to impose a 100-day moratorium on deportations.
Mr Biden has also indicated he would set the cap on admissions at 125,000 as part of the country’s refugee resettlement program - an eight-fold increase on the 15,000 under the Trump administration.
"It's going to take time to rebuild what has been so badly damaged, but that's precisely what we're going to do," he said in a recent speech.
As migrant numbers increased along the border, Biden administration officials have issued public statements urging migrants not to make the journey.
“Now is not the time to come,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a recent briefing, “and the vast majority of people will be turned away.”
She said the government is still seeking to develop a “humane, comprehensive process" as part of its asylum process.
“Asylum processes at the border will not occur immediately,” she said.
“It will take time to implement.”
The number of people stopped at the border has been increasing every month since October.
In January, there were around 3,000 arrests per day along the southern border, according to border officials.
Further complicating matters, Mexican authorities have indicated they will no longer take back families returned by the US under emergency pandemic health measures that were put in place in March.
This essentially leaves thousands of migrant families stuck in limbo.
Mexican authorities have indicated they will no longer take back families returned by the US under emergency pandemic health measures. Source: AFP
What do Republicans say about the border?
Republicans and conservative media outlets have repeatedly slammed Mr Biden’s move to reverse the Trump administration’s policies, describing it as a predictable crisis.
Last week, a group of 12 Senate Republicans accused Mr Biden of being “reckless” on immigration.
“This is the beginning of what could rapidly turn into a public health and humanitarian disaster. If illegal immigration continues to surge as a result of your policies, our detention facilities will be overwhelmed and pandemic precautions would be difficult or impossible to maintain.”
In a tweet last week, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley warned that illegal immigration was hitting "crisis levels".
Mr Mondschein suggested these gestures are largely performative, noting the rhetoric around immigrants from Central America has long been used as a “political football” by Republicans.
“The Obama administration arrested and deported far more migrants than the Trump administration did yet the Obama administration still faced criticism for being too lenient on immigration,” he said.
“Migrants coming to the United States through the Mexican border have long been viewed as a political football, to be used when it is politically convenient.”
Some Democrats agree.
Ahead of the new legislation being introduced, Vicente Gonzales - one of three Texas Democrats who represents part of the border that's seen a spike in new migrant arrivals recently - said it's a "recipe for disaster".
“The way we’re doing it right now is catastrophic and is a recipe for disaster in the middle of a pandemic,” he told Politico.
“Our party should be concerned. If we go off the rails, it’s going to be bad for us.
“Biden is going to be dealing with a minority in Congress if he continues down some of these paths.”
What happens next?
On Friday, a group of Democrats formally announced the introduction of their immigration reform legislation in Congress at a virtual news conference.
Among these proposed laws is a structured pathway to citizenship for select migrants, and increased funding for more immigration judges and support staff to help with the backlog of asylum seekers.
The administration is also seeking to mandate new rules around the language used to describe migrants, proposing a bill to remove the word “alien” in the immigration code and replace it with “non-citizen” to reduce stigma.
Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, who was among this group of Democrats, said his party has "compromised too much" on immigration in the past.
"We're here today because last November, 80 million Americans voted against Donald Trump and against everything he stood for," Mr Menendez said.
"The reason we have not gotten immigration reform over the finish line is not because of a lack of will.
“It is because time and time again, we have compromised too much and capitulated too quickly to fringe voices who refuse to accept the humanity and contributions of immigrants to our country."
But it appears unlikely that Mr Biden and the Democrats will have enough Republican support to pass this legislation in a bipartisan manner.
Democrats formally announced the introduction of their immigration reform legislation in Congress at a virtual news conference. Source: AAP
And if history is any guide, Mr Mondschein says, that’s not likely to change.
“The lack of comprehensive immigration reform has been a challenge that was not merely passed by President Trump to President Biden, it’s been passed by one president after another for decades at this point,” he said.
“Should President Biden leave office without achieving comprehensive immigration reform, then he will join a bipartisan list of US presidents who fared similarly.”
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