The new rules force US-bound migrants to apply for asylum online through the government’s CBP One app and make an appointment to meet US officials, or apply for asylum first in a country they pass through to get to the US frontier.
Those who don’t go through that process, and cross the border anyway, will be presumed ineligible for asylum.
The proposed rules, published in the Federal Register for a 30-day comment period before implementation, appear to partly revive the tough regime set by President Joe Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump that was eventually found unconstitutional.
But the Biden administration said that, in the absence of action from Congress, this is the only way to deal with the border, where up to 200,000 people try to cross each month, most of them requesting asylum.
“This administration will not allow mass chaos and disorder at the border because of Congress’s failure to act,” an official said on grounds of anonymity.
The new rules apply a system already in practice for migrants from Ukraine, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti.
The rules are expected to be put into place when the current Title 42 program which uses Covid-19 pandemic controls to tightly restrict immigration are lifted, expected on May 11.
“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,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in a statement.
Officials said the new rules were temporary and would expire after 24 months, but did not say what would replace them.
Pro-migrant groups condemned the new measure, comparing it to Trump’s moves to make it nearly impossible to enter the United States on an asylum request.
“This sweeping asylum ban will shut the door to countless refugees seeking safety and protection in the United States,” said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America.
“This policy is illegal, immoral, and will exact a frightening human toll on children, women, and men seeking safety,” she said.
A US federal judge in California on Friday blocked the Trump administration from implementing a new rule that would have dramatically reshaped the US asylum system and restricted asylum eligibility for immigrants seeking refuge in the United States.
The injunction undermines the Trump administration’s last-minute efforts to solidify its hard-line immigration policies before US president-elect Joe Biden takes office later this month.
US District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California granted an injunction sought by immigrant advocacy groups seeking to block the rule, which the Trump administration published on Dec. 11 and was set to take effect on Monday.
Pangea Legal Services and Immigration Equality sought to block the rule on the grounds that the Acting US Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, who authorized it, was not lawfully appointed to office. A Brooklyn judge in November blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects certain migrants from deportation, on the same grounds.
“The government has recycled exactly the same legal and factual claims made in the prior cases, as if they had not been soundly rejected in well-reasoned opinions by several courts,” Donato wrote in his opinion on the asylum rule.
US President Donald Trump withdrew Wolf’s nomination on Thursday after Wolf condemned Trump’s supporters rioting inside the US capitol in Washington D.C. and said he would support an orderly transition of power to president-elect Joe Biden.
The final rule would have cut off asylum access for most migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border through a series of changes to eligibility criteria, according to experts and advocates. It also directed immigration judges and asylum officers to deny broad types of asylum claims, such as those based on domestic abuse and gang violence, with some exceptions.
The injunction undermines the Trump administration’s last-minute efforts to solidify its hard-line immigration policies before US president-elect Joe Biden takes office later this month.
US District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California granted an injunction sought by immigrant advocacy groups seeking to block the rule, which the Trump administration published on Dec. 11 and was set to take effect on Monday.
Pangea Legal Services and Immigration Equality sought to block the rule on the grounds that the Acting US Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, who authorized it, was not lawfully appointed to office. A Brooklyn judge in November blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects certain migrants from deportation, on the same grounds.
“The government has recycled exactly the same legal and factual claims made in the prior cases, as if they had not been soundly rejected in well-reasoned opinions by several courts,” Donato wrote in his opinion on the asylum rule.
US President Donald Trump withdrew Wolf’s nomination on Thursday after Wolf condemned Trump’s supporters rioting inside the US capitol in Washington D.C. and said he would support an orderly transition of power to president-elect Joe Biden.
The final rule would have cut off asylum access for most migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border through a series of changes to eligibility criteria, according to experts and advocates. It also directed immigration judges and asylum officers to deny broad types of asylum claims, such as those based on domestic abuse and gang violence, with some exceptions.
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