President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday will begin denying asylum to migrants who show up at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through, according to a new rule released Wednesday.
The administration painted the rule as a way to reduce the number of migrants showing up at the border while still allowing people with legitimate claims a chance at asylum. Officials also emphasized the complex dynamics at play when it comes to immigration that at one time consisted largely of adults from Mexico seeking to come to the U.S. They could easily be returned home. Now migrants come from nations across the Western Hemisphere and beyond.
“With its new rule formalizing sweeping restrictions on asylum access, the Biden administration is putting border politics ahead of the safety of refugees," said Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International. The measures are all meant to fundamentally alter how migrants go to the U.S. southern border. COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions that are ending this week had allowed border officials to quickly return people — and they did so 2.8 million times. But even as the restrictions, known as Title 42, were in effect, border crossings rose to all-time highs. Congress has failed to make any major immigration law changes in decades.
Biden said Tuesday his administration was working to make the change orderly. “But it remains to be seen,” he told reporters. “It’s going to be chaotic for a while.”
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