Here’s how a border deal could impact people seeking asylum in the US
An urgent bid by the Biden administration to send a new flow of money to Ukraine for the war against Russia has stalled on Capitol Hill as Republicans in Congress demand sweeping changes to the immigration system.
Bipartisan talks on Capitol Hill to break the impasse focused on the U.S.-Mexico border — and whether the United States can continue to use its current system to decide who can enter the country and seek asylum may request.
It’s a highly charged debate that touches on a fundamental principle that has long been central to U.S. immigration policy: that the United States should be a place of refuge for people who face persecution or threats in their home countries.
This is what’s going on.
Why attention to asylum?
In recent years, a huge number of migrants have arrived at the U.S. southern border seeking asylum — regardless of whether they actually qualified or not. The rising number of arrivals during the Biden administration has fueled Republican attacks on the operation of the asylum system and led to calls for major changes.
Republicans, and a growing number of Democrats, say the system has become dysfunctional because it essentially allows any migrant to enter the country. They claim they fear for their lives, and could remain there for years while their case moves through immigration court.
Immigration advocates and experts say U.S. law gives any migrant who crosses the border the right to seek asylum and have their claim heard, and that efforts to ban or restrict them are both illegal and immoral.
Who should receive asylum?
Migrants are eligible for asylum if, according to the Department of Homeland Security, they cannot return to their country due to “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion, national origin, membership in a particular social group.” or political opinion.”
In an initial asylum screening – known as a credible fear screening – migrants must demonstrate that they can demonstrate that fear of persecution or torture to a judge.
Who is applying for asylum now and what happens to them?
Migrants from around the world arriving at the southern U.S. border often request asylum after being apprehended by Border Patrol agents. These migrants can be detained and taken for an initial asylum screening. But more often, due to declining capacity to detain people at the border, they are released and placed in immigration court, where their asylum claims are processed there within a few years.
The Biden administration has acknowledged that many migrants’ asylum claims are not legitimate. In a regulation issued earlier this year, U.S. officials noted that while 83 percent of people feared swift deportation at the border between 2014 and 2019, only 15 percent of them were ultimately able to obtain asylum in immigration court.
“The fact that large numbers of migrants pass credible fear screening, only to be denied assistance or protection on the basis of their merits after a lengthy legal process, imposes high costs on the system in terms of resources and time,” the government regulations say of the That said the Biden administration.
Immigration experts believe the statistics cited by the government may be misleading and are more complicated than they appear. But Republicans have seized on the discrepancy, arguing it is a case for stricter standards and more aggressive policies for detaining or deporting migrants.
How did the Trump administration treat asylum seekers?
The Trump administration has been focused on limiting access to asylum at the southern border. It tried to do this in several ways, including blocking protections for those crossing between ports of entry or for those passing through another country en route to the United States. This policy was often stymied by federal court.
One Trump policy that survived several legal challenges forced migrants seeking asylum at the southern border to remain in Mexico for the duration of their immigration court proceedings. The policy was rejected by immigrant advocates and Democrats, including Jill Biden, who visited one of the camps that formed in Mexico as migrants waited for their hearings.
After the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, the Trump administration instituted a policy known as Title 42 to immediately return asylum seekers without access to the same protections.
What changes has Biden made?
The Biden administration rolled back the “Remain in Mexico” program in 2021, which allowed migrants who were delayed there to enter the United States and seek asylum. The government kept Title 42 in place until it finally tried to phase it out last year. Due to legal challenges, it was not lifted until May.
But as arrivals at the border increased, the administration instituted a new asylum policy that resembled Trump-era practices. The policy, which took effect when Title 42 was repealed, makes it more difficult for migrants who enter the United States without authorization and do not seek protection in advance to seek asylum once they arrive. A federal judge struck down that policy in July, saying it was “against the law,” but a federal appeals court said it could continue as long as the appeal continued.
What is being discussed during the conversations on Capitol Hill?
The conversations on Capitol Hill focused mainly on border and asylum processing.
The Biden administration and Democratic senators have signaled their willingness to tighten initial asylum screening at the border. They have also indicated they are open to reinstating a Title 42-style power to immediately return migrants and expanding detention capacity to hold more migrants.
Republicans have also tried to bring back the Remain in Mexico policy, a move Democrats have opposed.
Would this make a difference?
It is unclear. The number of migrants at the southern border fell over the summer after Title 42 was lifted and the new Biden administration’s efforts to limit asylum began. However, in recent months the number of migrants arrested has increased. There were more than 260,000 migrant apprehensions at the southern border in September alone, according to government figures.
A more stringent version of the initial asylum screening is already available to government officials at the southern border, but the government does not appear to have sufficient detention capacity or asylum officers to handle the process in a comprehensive manner.
Raising the initial standard for asylum screening “could result in more people being returned, but how much more will depend on how the change is implemented and what resources are allocated,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
She added that most migrants being screened under the Biden administration’s new, more restrictive asylum policy “are deemed to be in need of protection and allowed to enter the country to pursue their claims.”
Reviving the authority to immediately turn migrants back at the border also does not guarantee they will be deterred from crossing, as numbers have been high even when Title 42 has been in effect in recent years.