The Biden administration unveiled a new policy to show it means business on lowering unauthorized border crossings between official ports of entry, aimed at asylum seekers. It will effectively try to shut down asylum requests under existing law if encounters average 2,500 a day over seven days. Based on current data, the executive order should trigger right away.
The latest encounters with migrants along the southwest border are down month to month as well as year over year, with about 180,000 encounters in April 2024. Senior Biden administration officials say the numbers reflect increased border enforcement and cooperation with the Mexican government, as well as increased legal pathways to entering the country. Now the U.
S. government is set to enforce more stringent standards for migrants seeking asylum and will rapidly remove those judged to not meet those criteria. Some immigration law experts view the announcement as purely political.
"President Joe Biden hopes that by seeming tough on the border, he will be able to deflect the criticism that the Republicans have thrown at him about being soft on immigration. But, you know, this is going to be challenged in the courts," said Cornell Law School professor and immigration attorney, Stephen Yale-Loehr. Yale-Loehr expressed doubts about the policy change, saying, "It's not going to deter people who really have a fear of persecution from coming to the United States border.
" Immigration advocates who think the policy violates a.
