Table of contents for Journal on Migration and Human Security, 12, 3, Sep 01, 2024

The Biden administration plans to immediately invoke an authority to shut off access to asylum for migrants who cross the US-Mexico border illegally, senior officials said Tuesday, a significant attempt by President Joe Biden to address head on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities.

President Biden has issued one of the most restrictive immigration policies ever declared under a recent Democratic administration. It will temporarily shut down the U.S.-Mexico border, deny asylum to most migrants who do not cross into the U.S. via ports of entry, and limit total asylum requests at the southern border to no more than 2,500 per day. The ACLU has threatened to sue the Biden administration over what reporter John Washington, who covers immigration in Arizona, calls an “excruciating and likely deadly” decision. “An illegal asylum seeker is a contradiction in terms,” Washington continues. “People have the right, according to U.S. law, to ask for asylum irrespective of how they crossed the border or where they are or what their status is. And this rule really flies in the face of that.”