Liam Conner
The Biden administration on Thursday announced a new regulation that aims to allow immigration authorities to more quickly identify and deport migrants who are not eligible for U.S. asylum earlier in the process.
The Department of Homeland Security regulation would apply to migrants who seek asylum after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. CBS News reported the government’s plans earlier this week. At this point, as a proposed regulation, it must go through a public comment period before coming into force.
It would instruct government asylum officials to enforce certain barriers to asylum that are already part of U.S. law during so-called credible fear interviews, the first step in the years-long asylum process. Those who pass these interviews can apply for asylum before an immigration judge, while those who don’t can be quickly deported.
In a phone call with reporters, a senior homeland security official said this would affect migrants who pose “significant threats” to public safety and national security, such as terrorism suspects. These are migrants that “we are very concerned about”, said the official, but the size of the population is “limited”.
Migrants barred from asylum by U.S. law include those who may pose a danger to public or national security. The rule would allow authorities to reject and deport migrants in these categories shortly after crossing the border.
Separately, DHS also issued new guidance Thursday to asylum officers, instructing them to disqualify migrants from asylum early in the immigration process if they can move to other parts of their home country where they can be safe. .
The new regulation, relatively narrow in scope, is one of several actions the Biden administration has considered to restrict access to the U.S. asylum system amid a surge in applications in recent years, driven largely by migrants crossing the border illegally. south.
HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden is also considering invoking overarching presidential authority to enact a broader asylum restriction ahead of the November election, sources with knowledge of the deliberations told CBS News. The authority, known as 212(f), allows presidents to suspend the entry of migrants whose arrival is considered harmful to U.S. interests. Former President Donald Trump invoked the law to justify several immigration restrictions, including a travel ban on predominantly Muslim countries.
Although the recently announced regulation does not affect a large number of migrants, it still reinforces a policy shift by Biden, who at the beginning of his presidency promised to “restore” the US asylum system.
But after record levels of migrant apprehensions along the southern border, including more than 2 million in each of the past two years, and an accompanying political backlash, the Biden administration enacted and rolled out more restrictive asylum rules.
Camilo Montoya-Gálvez
