Biden Administration Unveils Tough New Immigration Measure Amid Clampdown on Illegal Crossings

The Biden administration has been bogged down in a border crisis from the start, after the Democratic POTUS did away with many of his predecessor Donald Trump’s tough migration laws. However, in recent months there have been dire warnings of an influx of migrants after the expected expiry of the Trump-era Title 42 border policy.

The administration of Joe Biden has come up with a new measure to clamp down on illegal migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. The measure is not a total ban, but would deny asylum to thousands and has already been dubbed by its critics as “Trump-esque” and “Trumpian.”

The rule, announced by the US Departments of Homeland Security and Justice on February 21, establishes “a rebuttable presumption of asylum ineligibility," and will render some migrants ineligible for asylum in the US if they crossed the border unlawfully or failed to first apply in another country.

The proposed new asylum rule, according to the joint proposal by Homeland Security and the Justice Department, will “encourage migrants to avail themselves of lawful, safe, and orderly pathways into the United States, or otherwise to seek asylum or other protection in countries through which they travel, thereby reducing reliance on human smuggling networks that exploit migrants for financial gain.”

The administration has insisted that the border is currently overwhelmed with surging numbers of migrants. Furthermore, illegal crossings are expected to soar to an estimated 11,000 to 13,000 daily after the Title 42 border policy dating to Donald Trump's presidency expires in May.

Indeed, the rule, announced on Tuesday, had already been mentioned in early January. At the time, it came as part of an announcement by the Biden administration that some 30,000 migrants a month would be allowed legal entry in line with an executive authority known as “parole" from Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, under the condition that they apply through a mobile app, and have a US sponsor, instead of simply massing at the border.

As for the Title 42 policy, adopted amid the COVID pandemic during Trump’s presidency, it essentially allowed the US authorities to expel migrants on the grounds of protecting the country from the spread of the virus. The Biden administration first began preparations to scrap Title 42 in early 2022, with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) moving in May to terminate it as “no longer necessary.” However, a federal judge in Louisiana blocked the order, and legal battles ensued in courts as a group of states sued. The court required the government to keep Title 42 in place in the meantime.

As Biden administration officials were reportedly arguing that the new regulation is tailored “to help ensure secure, orderly, and humane processing of migrants once Title 42 eventually lifts,” critics denounced what they called a policy echoing Donald Trump's restrictive migrant approach. Democratic senators, including Bob Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, and Alex Padilla of California, all said they were “deeply disappointed” with the proposed rule.

The approach "defies decades of humanitarian protections enshrined in US law and international agreements, and flagrantly violates President Biden’s own campaign promises to restore asylum," Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, told media. The Biden administration’s rule would "send asylum seekers back to danger, separate families, and cost lives, as human rights advocates have been asserting for weeks,” said Jane Bentrott, counsel at Justice Action Center, an immigrant rights nonprofit.

The measure, officially proposed on Tuesday, is to endure a 30-day public comment period. If adopted, it would remain in place for two years.

After President Joe Biden took office, he wasted no time issuing a flurry of immigration-related executive orders, including putting a halt on construction of Trump’s signature border wall, revoking excluding undocumented immigrants from the census, a reversal of the Trump travel ban, the cancellation of the "Remain in Mexico" policy, and others. All this resulted in a huge surge in migrant crossings, with even fellow Democrats criticizing the approach. According to border control data, illegal crossings in fiscal year 2022 exceeded 2.7 million, breaking the previous record by one million.