Several plans that are being considered by the Biden administration – that bear similarities to policies former President Donald Trump pushed- would make it harder to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border place by placing limits on which immigrants may claim asylum after crossing into the country illegally.
According to multiple reports, the plans suggesting the revival of a Trump-era policy would prevent migrants from claiming asylum in the US if, prior to their arrival in the United States, they have not sought the same protections in other countries, such as Mexico.
As two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said – without offering further details since they had not seen a copy of the proposed regulation – the Biden administration is discussing a fast-track regulation to deny asylum to single adult migrants unless they’ve first sought protection in other countries.
The record number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border illegally has been one of the greatest struggles- both operationally and politically – of the Biden administration ever since he took office in January 2021.
More than 2,2 million migrant arrests have been made by the US border authorities at the southern border in the fiscal year 2022 ending on Sept. 30 – though many of those included repeat crossers.
Biden’s handling of the border has been strongly criticized by the Republicans, who take control of the US House of Representatives in January and have already threatened to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s top border official.
The Biden administration is also considering other Trump-era deterrents such as accelerating asylum processing times and screenings by Border Patrol agents, managing the migrants’ flow in cooperation with others in the region, and breaking up smuggling networks preying on migrants.
If adopted, the policies under consideration would mean Biden would sharply backtrack on the promises that helped him defeat Trump in 2020 – to reassert the US commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees and undo Trump’s hardline immigration policies- which has already drawn concern from immigration advocates.
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