The Biden administration is implementing a new asylum rule set to take effect 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 11 — one minute before Title 42 ends. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the rule presumes those who do not use lawful pathways to enter the United States are ineligible for asylum.
Under the new rule, DHS will be able to deport anyone who fails to establish a reasonable fear of persecution or torture in the country they would be deported to. It will not apply to those who were given permission to travel to the U.S. to seek parole, arrive at a port of entry with a pre-scheduled interview, establish it wasn’t possible to apply using the CBP One App and schedule an interview due to a technical issue, language barrier, or other exception.
Unaccompanied children will also be exempt from the new rule.
“This administration has led the largest expansion of legal pathways for protection in decades, and this regulation will encourage migrants to seek access to those pathways instead of arriving unlawfully in the grip of smugglers at the southern border,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.
Legal ways to enter
Those new legal pathways include the president’s immigrant parole program which began in January. It initially allowed 30,000 immigrants per month from Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela and Haiti to apply for two-year work visas using the CBP One App.
Citizens from those countries who cross the border illegally or arrive at a port of entry unannounced will be deported to Mexico, which has agreed to accept returns of 30,000 people per month.
The Biden administration is expanding the immigrant parole program as Title 42 ends. The president spoke with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Tuesday, May 9, and the two leaders agreed to keep the agreement in place.
The State Department is also opening what it hopes will ultimately be 100 regional processing centers in Latin America, where migrants can apply to enter either the United States, Canada or Spain.
DHS announced that anyone who fails to use a legal pathway to enter the country will have a five-year ban on reentering the country and be presumed ineligible for the programs.
“It’s going to be chaotic for a while,” Biden told reporters.
Immigration surge
Illegal immigration is expected to increase significantly when Title 42 ends May 11. In fact, it already is.
Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz announced his agents apprehended 26,382 immigrants from May 5 – May 7. Multiple Biden administration officials and local politicians in border communities have said there are tens of thousands more waiting to cross.
“Our current situation is the outcome of Congress leaving a broken outdated immigration system in place for over two decades. Despite unanimous agreement that we desperately need legislative reform. It is also the result of Congress’s decision not to provide us with the resources we need and that we requested,” Mayorkas said.
But Republican members of Congress have pointed their fingers at the Biden administration’s policies for the current surge.
“In his first week of office, President Biden began rolling back the successful Remain in Mexico program, inviting millions of illegal immigrants to flood our southern border,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a statement. “As the Biden administration allows Title 42 to lapse, there must be an effective plan to avoid exacerbating their border crisis.”
There are bipartisan proposals in Congress to extend Title 42 authorities, which allows for the almost immediate deportation of people who arrive illegally.
Additional enforcement measures
The Biden administration is taking additional steps to try to stop illegal immigration. It is moving 1,400 DHS personnel and 1,500 troops to the border to support Border Patrol agents.
A group of Panamanian, Colombian, and U.S. authorities will head to the Darién Gap to crack down on illegal smuggling networks.
There will also be a new advertising campaign in Central America which the department hopes will combat misinformation from smugglers who are telling people thinking about making the journey to America that the American border is open.
