More than 100 immigration advocacy organizations have launched a public campaign to raise awareness and express their concern to the Biden administration over its new proposal to restrict access to asylum at the southern border.
The policy would make undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border ineligible for asylum if they did not first make a claim in the country they passed through on their way to the US. home before making the perilous journey.
Immigrant advocacy groups have launched a website, noasylumban.us, to protest the policy and encourage opponents to contact the Biden administration. The proposed policy is currently open for public comment, meaning citizens can express opinions on the Department of Homeland Security’s proposal.
Meanwhile, Trump aide and immigration hard-liner Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, offered qualified support for the new policy.
The endorsement by a conservative Republican and rebuke by organizations that have previously aligned themselves with Democratic-led border policies highlight the awkward position the Biden administration finds itself in as it tries to contain the surge at the border. does when the Covid restrictions known as tit 42 expire in May.
In an interview with NBC News while visiting the border in Yuma, Arizona, Jordan said “good” when the new policy was presented, but then noted that the low numbers at the border seen in January have begun to climb in recent weeks. Has occurred.
Jordan then said that President Joe Biden should roll back Trump-era policies such as staying in Mexico and that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be impeached.
Immigration groups have compared the Biden policy to a similar strategy known as a “transit ban” championed by Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to President Trump who steered many of that administration’s tougher immigration policies. Was.
“This is not a Trump-era policy,” Mayorkas said on MSNBC on January 31, when details of the new policy were airing. “This is not a transit restriction. We have provided a legitimate route for people to attempt to enter.”
Biden administration officials have said they plan to launch it when Title 42 is lifted. Title 42, which has blocked more than 2 million border crossings, is expected to expire May 11 barring a successful court challenge.
“This rule is a stark reversal of the Administration’s stated commitment to restoring access to asylum. The right to seek asylum, no matter how you enter the United States, has been a hallmark of American asylum law, and this right It should not depend on whether you sought asylum on the way here and you were denied asylum,” said Alex Miller, director of the Immigration Justice Campaign.
Other immigration groups, including the National Immigration Justice Center, have said they are prepared to sue the administration to stop the new policy from moving forward.
