Immigration Expert: Change Won't Be Immediate With New U.S. Administration

By Lauren Gilger
Published: Monday, December 14, 2020 - 1:27pm

Audio icon Download mp3 (10.53 MB)

A family marches
Kino Border Initiative
A family marches together during a Save Asylum protest in Nogales, Sonora, on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. Asylum seekers waiting south of the border are asking the incoming Biden administration to restore the right to asylum in the United States.

Since the Trump administration took office four years ago, the asylum system in the United States has been dramatically changed.

Now, migrants who are stranded on the Mexican side of the border waiting to seek asylum are turning to the incoming Biden administration to ask for change.

Earlier this month, migrants and asylum seekers held a protest at the border wall in Nogales, urging Biden to resume asylum proceedings upon taking office and asking for the reversal of some of the Trump administration’s most controversial policies that have restricted access to asylum in recent years.

It’s an effort the Arizona Republic reported has the support of at least two of Arizona’s Democratic lawmakers in Washington — Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

But how easy might this kind of change actually be, considering the standstill the asylum process is at right now?

For that and more, The Show spoke with immigration expert Angela Banks, a professor at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. 

More Stories From KJZZ

PoliticsFronterasThe Show