The Biden administration is planning to issue a regulation to solidify the asylum restrictions that were put in place at the southern border during the summer, making it less likely that the strict rules will be lifted in the near future. In June, President Biden issued a proclamation suspending the entry of most migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department implemented his directive by enacting a rule that has effectively halted asylum processing between official border entry points, CBS reports. After the measures took effect in early June, illegal border crossings plunged to a four-year low.
The current order stipulates that the measure would lapse if the seven-day average of daily illegal border crossings falls below 1,500. (The last time the average of daily unlawful border crossings was below 1,500 for a month was in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic depressed migration, according to federal data.)
Under the proposed changes, however, the asylum restrictions would only deactivate if the seven-day average stays below 1,500 for 28 days. It would also include more migrants in the deactivation trigger's calculations. Currently, crossings by non-Mexican unaccompanied children are excluded. The updated calculations would include all unaccompanied children. Taken together, the planned updates would likely ensure that Biden's move to severely restrict asylum will remain in place in the foreseeable future, through the election and beyond.
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