WASHINGTON: Tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border could be denied asylum under a proposal unveiled on Tuesday that would be the most comprehensive attempt yet by US President Joe Biden's administration to deter unauthorized crossings.
Migrants who do not schedule an appointment at a U.S. border port of entry or use humanitarian programs available to certain nationalities would be ineligible for asylum under the new rules, except in limited circumstances. They must also seek and be denied protection in the countries they pass through before claiming asylum in the United States.
The measure, which was posted online on Tuesday and will be subject to a 30-day public comment period before being reviewed for final publication, was first reported by Reuters.
Biden, a Democrat who took office in 2021 and is expected to run for re-election in 2024, initially promised to restore asylum access that had been restricted by his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump. However, advocates and some Democratic colleagues have chastised him for increasingly adopting Trump-style restrictions as he struggles to deal with record numbers of arriving migrants.
Biden's plan to bar certain asylum seekers is similar to Trump's efforts, which were blocked by federal courts and drew similar opposition.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) vowed to fight the Biden rule in court, comparing it to the Trump restriction, which was dubbed a "transit ban" by activists.
"We successfully sued to stop the Trump transit ban, and we will sue again if the Biden administration follows through," said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU attorney who argued the Trump-era lawsuit.
According to the rule, which was issued jointly by the US Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ), families and single adults would be subject to the restrictions, while unaccompanied minors would be exempt. The measure would be temporary and limited to two years, with the option of being extended.
The Biden proposal, according to Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California College of Law in San Francisco, ignores dangerous conditions and limited asylum capacity in transit countries where migrants are expected to seek protection.
"It's a terrible example of trying to flout your domestic and international legal obligations," she said.
Last year, the Biden administration began discussing the ban and other Trump-style measures as a way to reduce illegal crossings if COVID-era restrictions that allowed many migrants to be returned to Mexico were lifted. As the COVID restrictions, known as Title 42, appear set to expire on May 11 when the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, the administration is moving forward with tougher asylum rules.
The proposed rule stated that "without a meaningful policy change, border encounters could rise, and potentially rise dramatically," after Title 42 was lifted, estimating crossings could reach up to 13,000 per day without the COVID restrictions, up from a daily average of about 5,000 in January.
The rule, according to a Biden administration official who declined to be identified, "is intended to fill the void that Congress has left by taking no action" to overhaul immigration laws or increase border security funding.
Requests for comment from Mexican authorities were not returned.
In January, Biden expanded Title 42 to expel more nationalities while allowing some people from those countries to apply for legal entry by air via humanitarian parole if they have sponsors in the United States. The parole program, which would admit up to 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan migrants per month, is one of the legal routes the administration claims would allow asylum seekers to avoid the proposed restrictions.
Separately, migrants seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border could use the CBP One app to schedule an appointment at a US land port of entry. However, migrants say that since the CBP One initiative began in January, slots have quickly filled up.