The Biden administration announced on Monday (September 30) that they will further strengthen the asylum restrictions implemented at the southern border. This stricter immigration policy may extend beyond the November US presidential election and could potentially continue indefinitely.
The new regulations are an enhancement of the restrictions announced in June, which allowed US officials to prohibit undocumented immigrants from seeking asylum when they deemed the southern border to be overwhelmed.
According to the June regulations, the US could limit immigrant asylum when the number of individuals attempting illegal entry between official border points reached 2,500 per day. The restriction could only be lifted if the seven-day average fell below 1,500 people.
However, the new rules released on Monday set a more stringent standard, requiring the asylum restrictions to be lifted only after the indicator remains unchanged for 28 consecutive days.
Furthermore, the new regulations now mandate the inclusion of all children in the calculations, compared to before when only immigrant children from Mexico were counted.
The new measures will take effect on Tuesday, significantly increasing the difficulty of lifting asylum restrictions and making it harder for immigrants to illegally cross into the US and eventually apply for asylum.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that since the June regulations were implemented, the seven-day average number of illegal immigrant crossings at the southern border has decreased to approximately 1,800 people per day but has not dropped below the threshold required to lift the asylum restrictions, let alone the 28-day average.
The Biden administration has praised these asylum restrictions, stating that the measures have led to a significant reduction in immigrant traffic to the southern border. The Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday that the number of illegal immigrants encountered by border patrol agents between legal points of entry has decreased by over 50% since the measures were announced in June.
The implementation of this policy has also decreased the percentage of illegal immigrants being released into the US and increased the percentage being deported. A senior official from the Department of Homeland Security stated that during this period, the US has deported or repatriated over 121,000 immigrants to more than 140 countries.
Many voters consider the issue of illegal immigration as a top hot-button issue in this year’s US presidential election, seen as a significant vulnerability for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The Vice President inspected a border area in Arizona last Friday, her first visit to the southern border since becoming the presumptive nominee. During the inspection, she walked along the metal fencing along the US-Mexico border, calling for tighter asylum rules while advocating for a better way to welcome legal immigrants.