Bad news for potential asylum seekers at the US southern border.
Migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border will not be able to apply for asylum in the United States if they have not applied in Mexico or in one of the countries they passed through before arriving in the United States, Reuters reported on Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Without this proof, they will be considered automatically ineligible, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The restrictive measure was adopted on Tuesday in an effort to reduce the flow of migrants into the United States to the southern border.
Unveiling sweeping restrictions on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Biden administration intends to discourage unauthorized crossings, Reuters reports.
The special feature of the new restrictions is that migrants must seek and be denied protection in the countries they cross in order to apply for asylum once in the United States. And this is to last for up to two years with the possibility of extensions, according to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in conjunction with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), adding that families and single adults would be subject to the restrictions while unaccompanied minors would be exempted, according to the rule.
Critics were quick to point out that President Biden, previously committed to facilitating access to asylum, unlike his predecessor Trump, is now doing the same.
This is already mobilizing the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), promising to fight Biden’s rule in court, comparing it to Trump’s restriction, which has been dubbed a “transit ban” by activists, Reuters writes.
“We successfully sued to block Trump’s transit ban and will sue again if the Biden administration moves forward with its plan,” said Lee Gelernt, the ACLU attorney who argued for the Trump-era lawsuit, quoted in by Reuters…
In the event that these new restrictions at the U.S.-Mexico border are found to be effective, Karen Musalo, director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California San Francisco School of Law, said in the wake of the proposal that Biden’s proposal fails to take into account the dangerous conditions and limited asylum capacity in transit countries where migrants will have to seek protection.
The Biden administration plans to tighten asylum restrictions against migrants from Mexico. This is likely to be exacerbated as the COVID restrictions, known as Title 42, look likely to end on May 11 when the public health emergency COVID-19 ends, Reuters reports.
At this time, Mexican authorities have not responded to requests for comment, the London-based media outlet said,
Another important clarification is that the parole program, intended for up to 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants per month, would be one of the legal avenues that the administration believes would allow asylum seekers to bypass the proposed restrictions.
In addition, migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border can make an appointment at a U.S. land port of entry using an app called CBP One. But since the launch of CBP One in January, migrants say the spots have filled up quickly, the Reuters article concludes.