McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — The Biden administration on Monday announced increased asylum regulations for immigrants seeking to cross the Southwest border.
Under the new rules, asylum restrictions that were implemented in June will remain in effect longer. And the number of unaccompanied children who attempt to cross will be factored into consideration as to when border restrictions might be eased.
Since early June, only asylum-seekers with appointments via the CBP One app have been allowed to cross at certain U.S. ports of entry to claim asylum. Fewer than 1,500 appointments per day are issued. Anyone encountered in between legal ports of entry was to be sent back or detained, with a few exceptions for extremely vulnerable populations like unaccompanied children and severely trafficked individuals.
For nearly four months under the president’s orders, this “emergency border circumstances” has limited the number of asylum seekers accepted at the border once the average border apprehensions in between legal ports of entry exceed 2,500 per day for a seven-day average.
The rule took effect on June 5 and could have been lifted after a week if the average number of encounters between ports of entry dropped below 1,500 people per day for the entire Southwest border, according to the executive order issued by President Joe Biden.
However, on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security amended the order and announced it will not lift until the number of entry drops below 1,500 per day for an average of 28 consecutive calendar days.
“This increase in the number of days ensures that the drop in encounters is a sustained decrease and not the result of a short-term change,” DHS said in a statement.
Currently, the 7-day average number of encounters by Border Patrol agents is about 1,800 per day along the Southwest border, DHS says.
The new rules also will factor in the number of all unaccompanied children who are encountered on the border as part of those daily average numbers. Previously, only unaccompanied children from contiguous countries, like Mexico, were counted toward determining consecutive calendar day averages.
But unaccompanied children who cross the Southwest border remain exempt from the asylum regulations and still will be taken into custody and cared for and processed by DHS officials, the agency said.
On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the new rules have resulted in a 55% drop in illegal crossings on the southern border since early June.
“In the past year, total removals and returns of people crossing illegally have exceeded the number of removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010. We have worked with other countries to disrupt and dismantle the smuggling organizations, enhance their enforcement efforts, accept the return of migrants who do not qualify for relief, (and) make irregular migration more difficult,” Mayorkas said in a statement. “This administration has taken new and innovative steps to provide humanitarian relief to individuals in need so that they do not have to migrate irregularly at tremendous peril, in the hands of the ruthless and powerful smuggling organizations.”
When a person is encountered on the border they must, on their own, express and establish “a reasonable probability of persecution of torture in the country of removal” otherwise they face repatriation, the agency says.
Since June 5, the agency says 70% of single adults and families encountered by Border Patrol have been repatriated. That’s up from 28% from May 2023 to May 2024. Also:
- DHS removed or returned more than 121,000 individuals, including 119,000 specifically processed under the rule, with repatriations to more than 140 countries, while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operated 398 international repatriation flights including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Egypt, Mauritania, Senegal, Uzbekistan, India, and the People’s Republic of China.
- Total removals and returns over the past year exceed removals and returns in any fiscal year since 2010, DHS says.
- A majority of all Southwest border encounters from Fiscal Year 2021 to Fiscal 2023 resulted in a removal, return or expulsion, the agency says.
Human Rights First on Monday responded to the new regulations by calling the policy “inhumane.”
“Doubling down on an inhumane policy that bans asylum is not the answer to orchestrated anti-immigrant fearmongering,” said Eleanor Acer, senior director for refugee protection at Human Rights First. “This policy bolsters xenophobic and racist rhetoric that falsely portrays immigrants as threats.
“The Biden administration should focus on urgently needed, real solutions, such as fixing the backlogs that undermine the effectiveness of our asylum system. The Biden administration should be eliminating, not expanding, barriers that deny people who are eligible for asylum a path to citizenship and family unity,” Acer said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.