Immigration advocates reject new restrictions on asylum in the United States

The new law, introduced by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, will mean that those individuals “who enter the United States without sufficient documentation for legal admission are not eligible for asylum.”

The rule will mostly apply to migrants crossing other countries to reach Mexico’s northern border illegally, but it will exclude unaccompanied and undocumented children.

According to the text, the proposal would “encourage immigrants to take advantage of legal, safe, and orderly pathways to the United States, or otherwise seek protection in the countries they transit” and would subject those who fail to comply with the requirements to expedited removal. More stringent asylum eligibility requirements.

Officials in President Joe Biden’s administration expect the rule to go into effect in May, after a 30-day public comment period, and once the Trump-era mass removal policy, known as Heading .42, expires.

Regarding the content of the rule, Douglas Rivlin, communications director for Voice of America, an advocacy group for immigrant rights, said he finds it difficult to reconcile the new asylum rule with the Biden campaign’s promise to turn the page on the cruelty and chaos of the previous era. .

The Oval Office occupant is also facing backlash from members of his own party over the proposal.

Rep. Chuy Garcia, for example, called it “a re-implementation of Trump-era policy that will prevent people from applying for asylum, worsen conditions at the border, and put vulnerable people back into harm’s way.”

Andrea Flores, a former White House official, lamented that instead of making progress on addressing regional mass migration, the Biden administration is normalizing white nationalists’ belief that asylum seekers from some countries deserve less humanitarian protection.

“For an administration that strives to uphold racial equality, it is deeply disappointing to see it normalize the dehumanizing narrative that black and brown immigrants on the southern border deserve to be punished for seeking the legal path that Congress provided for them,” he said. Cited by Common Dreams Portal.

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