The article didn’t copy correctly in the first post. This is the entire article. Sorry for any confusion.
Biden administration set to pitch new asylum changes
The forthcoming changes will address the stage at which migrants can be found ineligible to apply for and receive asylum.
The Biden administration will propose new changes to the asylum system on Thursday, four people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.
The forthcoming changes will address the stage at which migrants can be found ineligible to apply for and receive asylum. Under the current system, eligibility is determined based on a
number of factors during the interview stage — the administration is set to propose applying these standards during the initial screening stage.
That change would effectively allow the U.S. to expedite the removal of migrants whom officials see as potentially ineligible to stay in the country due to national security or public safety risks, per all four people, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the administration’s plans. The Department of Homeland Security will announce the new policy via a proposed rule on Thursday.
The announcement is not slated to include several
sweeping changes to migration policy that Biden administration officials have weighed, such as using a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar migrants from seeking asylum in between ports of entry. Those larger-scale changes are not expected to get proposed until June at the earliest, according to the four people.
President Joe Biden has faced pressure from within his party to go it alone on the border after the collapse of a bipartisan Senate immigration plan earlier this year. The White House for months has weighed the timing of new executive actions and federal regulations, as Biden officials try to use the border deal’s failure to lessen Donald Trump’s polling advantage on border and immigration.
Thursday’s announcement likely won’t spur the kind of blowback from the left that an asylum ban would bring. But some immigration advocates are concerned about the implementation challenges the administration will face on the proposed rule. Already, credible fear screenings take asylum officers a few hours to complete. The new policy would further extend the process, putting more pressure on asylum officers who are already facing record demands.
There are also concerns about whether migrants, who will have little time to seek counsel before the preliminary screening, would get effective or proper legal representation under the proposed rule.
A group of House Democrats, largely from battleground districts, wrote the president Tuesday calling for executive action to “immediately take further action to restore order at the Southern border and fix our broken immigration system.”
“This is a problem that I believe there are levers that the administration could pull and we’re encouraging the Biden administration to look at all of those since Republicans want to apparently complain about it and do nothing,” said Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) on Tuesday.
Progressives, however, have criticized the possible adoption of
previously floated executive orders that would clamp down on immigration or restrict asylum. They’ve called for Biden to use his presidential power to protect undocumented people who have long resided in the United States.
“These enforcement-only actions make people feel good for about a half a second, but they don’t actually do anything to fix the problem. It didn’t work under Donald Trump when he tried to shut down the border,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Wednesday.
Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled support for Biden’s willingness to take executive action as the divided Congress remains unable to move ahead on immigration legislation.
“Obviously I’m not an adviser to the president,” the Kentucky Republican said Wednesday. “But if I were, I’d say you should do something to the maximum extent of your ability.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer affirmed that “the administration is looking at what they can do administratively,” even as he indicated that his party wouldn’t abandon attempts at a compromise bill.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the chief authors of that failed compromise legislation, said he would spend the next few weeks trying to re-engage with Republicans who rejected the proposal three months ago.
Murphy’s GOP counterpart in the immigration talks, Sen. James Lankford (Okla.), said he hasn’t discussed the matter recently with the Democrat and that he was unaware of the new effort.
“There’s a million things they could do that they have not done for the last three years,” Lankford said of the administration in a brief interview.
