Biden officials propose denying some migrants earlier in asylum process

The Biden administration on Thursday proposed a new rule that it said would streamline asylum processing at the southern border by quickly denying certain migrants deemed to “pose a national security or public safety risk”.

The proposed rule would allow immigration officials to reject and deport migrants who are already ineligible for asylum at an earlier stage in the process, a change administration officials said would enhance national security and save taxpayer dollars.

The rule targets migrants who have been “convicted of a particularly serious crime”, who have “participated in the persecution of others”, who are “inadmissible on national security or terrorism-related grounds” or for whom there are reasonable grounds to deem them a danger to the security of the United States, according to a memo distributed by the Department of Homeland Security.

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Federal law already bars individuals who pose a national security or public safety threat from being granted asylum, but the new rule would allow asylum officers to consider their ineligibility during an initial screening for “credible fear” – a criterion for establishing asylum – which can take place just days after the individual is encountered at the border.

“The proposed rule we have published today is yet another step in our ongoing efforts to ensure the safety of the American public by more quickly identifying and removing those individuals who present a security risk and have no legal basis to remain here,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, said in a statement. “We will continue to take action, but fundamentally it is only Congress that can fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system.”

A senior homeland security official, who spoke to reporters on Thursday on the condition of anonymity, said the number of migrants subject to asylum bars was “small”, but did not provide an estimate. The official added that the rule would “save taxpayer money” because many of the migrants subject to asylum bars are detained throughout the proceedings, which can take months.

The move comes as Biden confronts bipartisan calls to take executive actions to stem the flow of people crossing the US-Mexico border. After reaching record highs last year, border crossings have steadily declined since December. But the issue continues to be one of the president’s biggest political vulnerabilities before the November election, and polls show widespread, albeit polarized, frustration with the president’s handling of the border.

Republicans, led by the party’s presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, blame Biden for the unprecedented situation at the US-Mexico border. Progressive Democrats, Latino leaders and immigration rights advocates are pressing him to do more to protect immigrants already living and working in the United States. At the same time, swing-state and border-state Democrats are pushing Biden to use his executive authority to clamp down on border crossings.

“As the Biden administration considers executive actions on immigration, we must not return to failed Trump-era policies aimed at banning asylum and moving us backwards,” senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat of California said at a press conference on Wednesday. “I urge President Biden to embrace our values as a nation of immigrants and use this opportunity to instead provide relief for the long-term immigrants of this nation.”

Earlier this year, Congressional Republicans tanked a bipartisan border deal at the behest of Trump in order to deny Biden a political win. Congressional Republicans have since argued that Biden already has the executive authority to halt the flow of migrants. Biden has continued to call on Congress to act.

Meanwhile, Trump has vowed to carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” should he win re-election in November, laying out a suite of legally questionable policies that include the deployment of military and police units and the creation of vast detention camps along the southern border.

The changes announced on Thursday are limited in scope. But Biden has said his administration is exploring a broader set of executive actions,
including whether he has the authority to shut down the southern border.