On Thursday, President Joe Biden’s administration announced that they were going to start denying asylum to all migrants who arrive at the U.S. border without having previously applied online for asylum or tried to get asylum in one of the countries they passed through. These new measures are aiming to reduce the number of illegal border crossings by creating a legal pathway for those who want to migrate to the U.S.
While the Biden administration has not imposed a total ban, with this measure they are going to be limiting who is able to apply for asylum out of all those who didn’t try to get asylum through a legal pathway. As part of this plan, there will be 100 regional migration hubs that will open across the Western Hemisphere.
The rule was first announced in February, and despite 50,000 people expressing their opinions about the rule, the rule does not appear to be significantly different with the finalized rule going into effect on Thursday. It is likely that the rule is going to face legal challenges after it begins being enforced.
Critics of this rule have stated that these restrictions on asylum access could prove to be dangerous for refugees. Jeremy Konyndyk, the president of Refugees International specifically noted that this policy put politics above refugee safety.
It was further pointed out that under this rule there are no exceptions for those facing “an acute medical emergency” or other situations that threaten their life and safety.
