On Tuesday, the Biden administration proposed new rules to prevent illegal immigration and reduce the number of people who file fraudulent asylum claims at the U.S. border.
The proposal echoes a Trump-style policy, which President Biden once criticized as a “humanitarian disaster.”
The proposed rules would make those who cross through other nations to reach the U.S. border ineligible for asylum. They would be encouraged to find legal pathways to enter the country instead.
This move recognizes that the border situation could worsen when the administration ends the pandemic-related Title 42 border expulsion policy this spring.
The proposed policy aims to channel the flow of illegal immigration into legal avenues, according to Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas.
He stated, “Individuals who are provided a safe, orderly, and lawful path to the United States are less likely to risk their lives traversing thousands of miles in the hands of ruthless smugglers, only to arrive at our southern border and face the legal consequences of unlawful entry.”
The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice (DOJ) wrote in a notice of proposed rulemaking, “The proposed rule would 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 rule would introduce a rebuttable presumption of asylum ineligibility for certain noncitizens who neither seek asylum or other protection in a country through which they travel nor use a lawful, safe, and orderly pathway to enter the United States.
The departments believe that without this temporary measure, the number of unauthorized migrants expected to travel to the United States will significantly increase.
This increase could jeopardize the government’s ability to enforce and administer U.S. immigration law, including the asylum system, in the face of challenging circumstances.
Mark Morgan, former acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, announced last month that under the Biden administration, the U.S. “has been forced to address more than 6 million total encounters and got-aways.”
Annually, illegal immigration now costs taxpayers billions of dollars a year, according to the Heritage Foundation. Illegal immigration costs border states like California and Texas $21 billion and $8 billion per year respectively.
