WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, the White House announced that it would be enforcing new rules limiting the asylum process for people entering the country illegally. The restrictions are designed to follow the ebb and flow of migration patterns, limiting asylum claims when the border is “overwhelmed” according to a formula that tracks daily migrant encounters.
The new rule comes on the heels of partisan disagreements over immigration reform. In a press release, the Biden administration accused Republicans in Congress of “put[ting] partisan politics ahead of national security” after two attempts at a bipartisan border bill failed to advance.
Republicans, on the other hand, have long criticized the Biden administration for what they fear are overly lax policies. “If he was serious he would have done this years ago,” Texas Senator John Cornyn tweeted last week in response to the announcement. “He is not serious.”
The right to asylum arose from major population displacement during World War II and was codified during the international Refugee Convention of 1951. “Seeking asylum is a human right and every person in the world has the right to apply for asylum if they are fleeing conflict or persecution,” explains the United Nations Refugee Agency. “They must not be expelled or returned to situations where their lives or freedoms would be in danger.”
After arrival in the United States, migrants can apply for asylum through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. There are a few pathways to approval, but migrants flagged for “expedited removal” from the country must prove “credible fear” to an immigration official — essentially, proving that there is a major risk to that individual of persecution or torture upon their return to their country of origin.
Over the past few years, large influxes of migrants from countries like Venezuela and Haiti have turned the phrase “asylum-seekers” into a political hot potato. In 2014, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported 47,799 claims filed — that number has exploded in the years since COVID, cresting to an all-time high of 487,518 in Fiscal Year 2023.
As of the first quarter of this fiscal year, 1,032,940 claims remained pending, which could portend a four-fold increase from last year’s 1,077,866.
Immigration officials have attempted to close the gap through measures like CBP One, an app that allows asylum-seekers to make appointments remotely. “Scheduling an appointment in CBP One continues to provide a safe, orderly and humane process for noncitizens to access ports of entry, where CBP officers receive advance information for screening and vetting and to determine admissibility on case-by-case basis,” the agency’s website explains.
While the availability of appointments has steadily increased, the app has been widely criticized for its glitches — and a major backlog of pending asylum cases remains.
The Biden administration’s new asylum policy will limit the number of claims that can be processed based on the number of daily migrant encounters. The policy only affects migrants who enter the country illegally, outside a port of entry.
If the weekly average of unauthorized border crossings is 1500 or less for 14 consecutive days, claims will be processed as usual. However, if the border is “overwhelmed” by 2500 daily crossings or more, the ability to apply for asylum will be temporarily suspended. The Washington Office on Latin America reported that the last time daily crossings were below the threshold was July 2020 — a period when much of the world was under major COVID-19 restrictions.
Currently, CBP One appointments cannot be booked at the Presidio Port of Entry. The nearest locations are Paso Del Norte in El Paso and the port of entry in Eagle Pass.
Representative Tony Gonzales — who represents El Paso, Presidio and Eagle Pass in Congress — was not satisfied with the new restrictions. “This executive order by Joe Biden does nothing,” he told CBS 4 in El Paso. “It has no teeth.”
