The United States announces that it will limit asylum to migrants passing through a third nation

• The US has announced plans to sharply limit asylum.
• This echoes a Trump policy that was blocked by the courts.
• The measure imposes very strict limitations for any nationality except Mexicans.

The US government announced Tuesday that it will generally deny asylum to migrants who show up at the country’s southern border without first having applied for protection in a nation through which they have passed, emulating an attempt by the Trump administration that never came into effect because it was blocked in court, according the AP news agency and El Heraldo.

The measure, while not quite a total ban, places very strict limitations on asylum for any nationality except Mexicans, who do not have to travel through a third country to reach the United States. The move is almost certain to be the subject of legal challenges. Trump tried to enforce a similar ban in 2019, but a federal appeals court prevented it from going into effect. It must also first go through a 30-day public comment period before it can be formally adopted. In the event that this happens, it would be in force for two years.

WHEN WILL THE NEW ASYLUM POLICY TAKE EFFECT?

Government officials expect the policy to take effect when a rule implemented during the pandemic that denies asylum on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19 ends. This rule, known as Title 42, expires on May 11, but has been extended twice due to legal challenges from Republican-led states.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department argued that the growing number of immigrants left them few options. They anticipate illegal crossings to increase to between 11,000 and 13,000 a day if no action is taken after the expiration of Title 42. That figure is even higher than the 8,600 daily crossings recorded in mid-December, when expectations grew that Title 42 was nearing completion. At the last minute, the Supreme Court kept it in place.

WILL THEY MAKE EXCEPTIONS?

The proposed rule establishes «a rebuttable presumption of ineligibility for asylum» for anyone who crosses another country to reach the US border with Mexico without first applying for protection there, according to a notice published in the Federal Register. Exceptions will be made for people with an «acute medical emergency,» «imminent and extreme threat» of violent crime such as murder, rape or kidnapping, being a victim of human trafficking, or «other extremely compelling circumstances.» Children traveling unaccompanied by an adult will also be exempt.

The measure encourages migrants to follow legal pathways to apply for asylum, such as using the Customs and Border Protection application, CBP One, through which they can schedule an appointment to appear at a border entry point to apply for asylum. The administration describes these actions as a way to protect migrants from dangerous journeys north to the United States and to allow US ports of entry to handle migrant flows in a «safe and efficient manner.» However, critics have said that the app has been plagued with technical problems and it is unclear how many appointments are available each day.

IS IT THE SAME THING THAT TRUMP DID?

US officials insist the measure is different from Trump’s, largely because there is room for waivers and because the Biden administration has put in place other legal avenues for immigrants, notably humanitarian parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and Ukrainians. “We are a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. We are reinforcing the availability of legal and orderly pathways for migrants to come to the United States, while proposing new consequences for those who do not use the processes made available to them by the United States and its regional partners,» said the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.

The rule was first mentioned in early January as part of a broader announcement by the government to let in 30,000 migrants a month from four countries — Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua — as long as they apply to enter the United States and not just show up at the border. The government said that in the weeks since, the number of encounters with migrants from those countries plummeted, and it has been hailed as a model for tackling immigration.

IS IT A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION?

However, immigrant rights advocates have criticized attempts to limit asylum claims at the southern border of the United States, pointing out that some migrants cannot wait in their home country and that other countries do not offer the same immigration protections that the United States does. Four Democratic senators, Bob Menendez, Cory Booker, Ben Ray Lujan and Alex Padilla, said they were «deeply disappointed» that the administration went ahead with the rule and urged it to reconsider.

«We have an obligation to protect vulnerable migrants under national and international law, and we must not leave them stranded in countries unable to protect them,» the senators’ statement read. Anu Joshi of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which litigated many of the challenges to Trump’s immigration restrictions, sharply criticized the rule, saying it was merely taking up Trump’s asylum ban.