The Biden administration published a new immigration rule Tuesday that would dramatically shake up the current system and disqualify migrants who illegally cross into the US from applying for asylum.
US Customs and Border Protection officers have been stretched to their limits by the number of migrants who are showing up at the southern border — with a record-setting 2.4 million encounters in 2022.
The new rule would instead require asylum-seekers to apply for protection in any country they travel through before they arrive in the US.
The rule is expected to take effect in May, just before pandemic-era restriction Title 42 is expected to end and last two years, according to the Washington Post.
The government’s document announcing the rule states it is being issued “in anticipation of a potential surge in migration at the southwest border of the United States” when Title 42 ends.
Title 42 is a Trump-era COVID-19 policy the federal government has used to eject thousands of migrants back over the border to Mexico. The Biden administration has announced all pandemic policies will expire on May 11.
Under the new rule, migrants would become ineligible for asylum if they enter the country illegally — as they have been doing for the last two years since Biden has been in office — creating what city officials at the border have called an unsustainable crisis in their communities.
Chief Patrol Agent for the Tucson, Ariz., border sector John Modlin previously described how migrant apprehensions had increased in the last two years, telling a house oversight committee earlier this month: “In 2020, our total encounters were 66,000. That figure nearly tripled in 2021, and then quadrupled last year. We closed last year, 2022, with over 250,000 encounters in Tucson.”
In December, El Paso, Texas, declared a state of emergency as around 2,700 migrants flooded the city per day and surrendered to Border Patrol agents seeking asylum. Those who claimed fear for their lives if they returned to their country were released into the city while their cases play out in court — as is required by US laws.
As part of the new policy, migrants would be required to ask for refuge in any other country they stepped foot in when they left their home country. Those who failed to do would be immediately deported without going through an appeals process.
Immigrant advocates, such as the ACLU, have slammed this new policy, claiming it violates long-established laws that guarantee the right to claim asylum to anyone on US soil, regardless of how they got there.
“Critically, our courts have long recognized that a person’s decision not to seek asylum while in transit to the US has no bearing on their need for protection,” the organization said.
The Biden rule has also been denounced by immigrant advocates as merely “rebranded Trump-era policies.”
“With the [Biden] administration, people really think immigration did change, but in reality, it’s worse,” said Crystal Sandoval of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center told The Post. “It’s just rebranding, but they are the same policies we saw under [President] Trump.”
President Trump had previously enacted a “safe third country” rule in 2019 which required asylum seekers to apply for refuge in the first stable territory they came to after leaving their home country but it was struck down in court after numerous challenges.
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