BORDER SECURITYCan Biden’s New Asylum Policy Help Solve the Migrant Crisis?
The Biden administration’s proposed immigration policy aims to curb migrant flows to the United States amid record border crossings. What will it do, and how does it compare to the Trump years?
In February 2023, President Joe Biden unveiled a new asylum policy that aims to discourage unauthorized border crossings into the United States. His administration says the measure is necessary to handle a growing number of border crossings, but critics say it could have deadly consequences for migrants who have a legal right to seek protection.
What is the Biden Administration’s New Asylum Policy?
Under the new rule, border authorities will deny asylum to most migrants who arrive at an official port of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border without having first applied for asylum in a third country traversed along the way. Migrants who do not schedule an appointment at a point of entry or use other available humanitarian programs will be deported to their home countries.
The policy will include exemptions for people with medical emergencies, children traveling alone, and Mexican nationals. (About 11 percent of all pending asylum cases in 2022 were for Mexican citizens.) The measure is expected to take effect in May when Title 42, a policy that denies asylum on pandemic-related grounds, is set to end. Immigration experts say the proposal is likely to be challenged in court.
What Problem Does It Aim to Address?
Biden took office pledging to reform the U.S. immigration system and restore asylum access that had been curtailed under his predecessor, President Donald Trump. However, a growing influx of migrants crossing the border has upended those plans. Illegal border crossings surpassed 2.3 million in fiscal year 2022, an all-time high, while the backlog of asylum cases pending in U.S. immigration courts currently sits at more than 820,000, the most on record. The Biden administration hopes that redirecting that flow to official ports of entry will overcome the public perception of chaos at the border.
U.S. officials say that, absent any policy changes, migration at the border is likely to surge after Title 42 is lifted in May, with illegal border crossings reaching as much as thirteen thousand per day. More than 2.6 million migrants have been deported under Title 42, and efforts to terminate it have been repeatedly delayed by multiple ongoing lawsuits from Republican-led states.
