Biden administration proposes tightening of asylum rules to stem illegal migration

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a proposal to deport would-be migrants who did not seek asylum from another country while travelling to the United States or who failed to provide advance notice of their plans to seek asylum.

Under the proposal, border authorities would automatically assume a migrant to be ineligible for asylum if they enter the U.S. in an unlawful manner, the New York Times reported.

The administration announced the proposal ahead of the planned lifting of the Title 42 COVID-19 pandemic immigration enforcement order and an anticipated surge in illegal migration, per the outlet. The policy closely resembles a proposal from the Trump administration that would have rejected asylum status to applicants who did not first seek it in other countries along their route to the United States.

Title 42 is a section of a U.S. law allowing for the swift deportation of migrants from the U.S. should they hail from a country known to host a communicable disease such as COVID-19. The administration's Republican critics have warned that the rule's termination will prompt a significant uptick in the number of migrants attempting to enter the U.S.

The current proposal from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security is currently awaiting the completion of a 30-day public comment period prior to its implementation.

More than 4 million migrants have entered the U.S. since President Joe Biden took office with a record 2.4 million entering the country during fiscal year 2022 alone, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures.

The administration has attracted considerable scrutiny for its handling of the southern border and immigration policy as a whole. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in particular, has been a frequent subject of calls for his impeachment from Republicans, though the House has yet to move on any such effort.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.