WASHINGTON, May 10 (Portal) – The US on Wednesday introduced a new regulation denying asylum to most migrants illegally crossing the US-Mexico border. This is an important part of President Joe Biden’s enforcement plan as COVID-19 border restrictions known as Title 42 end this week.
The regulation creates a new presumption that migrants who arrive at the border are not eligible for asylum if they have transited through other countries without first seeking protection elsewhere, or if they have failed to find legal avenues of entry to use in the US.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the new rule would mean harsher penalties for illegal cross-border workers. Instead of being quickly deported to Mexico, they could be deported and banned from the US for five years if they don’t qualify for asylum.
“We are making it very clear that our border is not open, that irregular crossing is against the law and that those who are not eligible for relief will be turned back quickly,” Mayorkas said at a news conference in Washington.
He blamed Congress for failing to pass meaningful immigration reform “for more than two decades,” adding that lawmakers had failed to provide the funding for border officials, facilities and transportation required by the Biden administration.
The Biden administration is struggling with a surge in what is already a record number of unauthorized border crossings as COVID-19 restrictions, first introduced in March 2020, are due to be lifted just before midnight on Thursday. Migrants are piling up in Mexico this week, while those who have already entered the US are straining border towns.
Title 42 restrictions allow US authorities to quickly deport many non-Mexican migrants to Mexico without an opportunity to seek asylum in the US. Mexicans, who are most often caught crossing, can be quickly sent back to Mexico under bilateral agreements that existed before the COVID-19 restrictions.
The new regulation, which takes effect Thursday and expires in two years, contains no significant changes from a draft released in February, a senior Biden administration official told reporters Tuesday night.
The rule applies to the vast majority of non-Mexican migrants, as they typically pass through multiple countries en route to the United States.
Some migrants said they would scramble to enter the country before the new rules take effect.
More than 10,000 migrants were caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border every day Monday and Tuesday, said Brandon Judd, chairman of a border guards union. The total exceeds a scenario that a senior US border official outlined last month for the post-Title 42 period.
Border officials have been empowered to release migrants in border towns when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and charities don’t have the capacity to take them, Judd said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
criticism from both sides
Republicans have criticized Biden, a Democrat running for re-election in 2024, for rolling back the hardline policies of former Republican President Donald Trump, the current front-runner for his party’s nomination.
However, some Democrats and pro-immigrants have criticized Biden’s new rule, saying it resembles similar measures implemented under Trump that have been blocked by US courts and undermines asylum guarantees in US law and international treaties.
The move also goes against earlier statements Biden made during the 2020 campaign that he thought it was “wrong” if people could not seek asylum on American soil. The American Civil Liberties Union has already signaled that it will sue over this policy.
On the other end of the ideological spectrum, a coalition of 22 Republican attorney generals individually opposed the measure, saying it was “riddled with exceptions.”
In addition to the ban on asylum seekers, which could speed up deportations, Biden officials said in late April they were expanding legal avenues for migrants abroad to provide alternative routes into the United States and discourage illegal border crossings.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Biden officials said the government plans to open more than 100 migration processing centers in the Western Hemisphere and will launch a new online appointment platform in the coming days.
Officials also said they expect Mexico to tighten immigration enforcement this week, including in southern Mexico.
Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Edited by Mica Rosenberg, Aurora Ellis and Jamie Freed
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Ted Hesson