President Joe Biden announced Monday he is tightening restrictions for asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border, a decision that puts people fleeing violence and poverty in “grave danger,” according to the United Nations refugee agency.
The new rules will expand on restrictions first announced in June, which prevented people from applying for asylum once official border crossings hit 2,500 a day. Daily numbers will now have to be below an average of 1,500 for 28 days before the restrictions can be lifted; previously, the target was under 1,500 per day for a week.
“The regulation severely curtails access to protection for people fleeing conflict, persecution, and violence, putting many refugees and asylum seekers in grave danger without a viable option for seeking safety,” the UNHCR said in a statement.
The more aggressive restriction, which goes into effect Tuesday, will also begin counting children from all countries towards the number of crossings, whereas it previously only counted children from Mexico.
Border crossings reached record-level in the first three years of Biden’s presidency, peaking at nearly 250,000 in December 2023. Illegal entries are down 80% since then, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“This action has been taken in parallel with other administration actions that have both increased enforcement and delivered to asylum seekers safe and lawful pathways to humanitarian relief that cut out the ruthless smuggling organizations that prey on the vulnerable,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in a statement.
But human rights groups have expressed concern over Biden’s asylum regulation and how it will impact migrants fleeing violence. In its statement, the U.N. refugee agency, or UNHCR, suggested the Biden administration was running afoul of its international commitments.
"Every person seeking asylum must be granted access to safety and afforded the opportunity to have their claims individually and fairly assessed before deportation or removal," UNHCR said in its statement. "Limiting or blocking such access is a violation of international refugee law and the humanitarian principles to which the United States has long been a leader."
The latest restriction comes as immigration takes center stage in November’s election and anti-immigration sentiment grows across the country, particularly after Republicans led a smear campaign against legal Haitian immigrants in Ohio.
Amnesty International said in a statement that, amidst all the anti-immigrant rhetoric permeating the political sphere, Americans must be “equally disgusted and dismayed by policies that put Haitians, and other Black, Brown, and Indigenous people seeking safety, in danger.”
Advocacy group Human Rights First said the Biden administration decision “bolsters xenophobic and racist rhetoric that falsely portrays immigrants as threats,” and is a false solution to a systemic issue. "Instead of playing politics with the lives of people seeking protection, the Biden administration should focus on urgently needed, real solutions, such as fixing the backlogs that undermine the effectiveness of our asylum system,” the organization said in a statement.
