The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will implement a new rule to restrict asylum similar to rules implemented during the Trump administration, according to a Tuesday announcement from the agency.
The proposed new rule means that migrants seeking to come to the U.S. to claim asylum, who pass through safe countries on their journey without making an asylum claim there, would be presumed to be ineligible, barring certain exceptions, according to DHS. The expected rule’s announcement follows changes the Biden administration made to allow migrants to enter the country legally either using a phone app at ports of entry or a program for Venezuelans, Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans to apply for humanitarian parole to fly to the U.S. (RELATED: Biden Admin Continues To Tout Success Of Major ICE Program, But Experts Say The Data Is ‘Misleading’)
The new policy resembles deals President Donald Trump made with Central American countries to provide safety for migrants seeking asylum that the Biden administration scrapped upon entering office. The Trump administration’s rule meant certain migrants who tried to claim asylum or humanitarian support at the southern border would be sent to Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras, according to DHS.
Former acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said the program “sounds oddly familiar,” alluding to the Trump administration’s asylum rule, in a Tuesday tweet.
The changes come during record surges in illegal immigration to the U.S., where Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recorded more than 2.3 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2022. The new rule is also ahead of an expected influx with the end of Title 42, the Trump-era expulsion order used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, on May 11.
Title 42’s end is still being contested in court by Republican states.
This sounds oddly familiar. Biden Admin had the ability to take this action 2 years ago.https://t.co/VQCarrpEUU
— Chad Wolf (@ChadFWolf) February 21, 2023
Former Acting Deputy Chief of Staff Lora Ries, who currently serves as the director of Border Security and Immigration Center at the conservative Heritage Foundation, however, believes the Biden administration will continue to let migrants exploit many loopholes in their rules to enter the country.
“They want it to look like they are. They might actually enforce the law but really, they’re not,” Ries told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“We are a nation of immigrants, and we are a nation of laws. We are strengthening the availability of legal, orderly pathways for migrants to come to the United States, at the same time proposing new consequences on those who fail to use processes made available to them by the United States and its regional partners,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Tuesday.
“As we have seen time and time again, individuals who are provided a safe, orderly, and lawful path to the United States are less likely to risk their lives traversing thousands of miles in the hands of ruthless smugglers, only to arrive at our southern border and face the legal consequences of unlawful entry,” Mayorkas added.
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