The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has proposed a rule change to disincentivize illegal border crossings at the nation’s southern border. However, a nonprofit immigration reform advocacy group says the change is purely about optics headed into the 2024 election cycle.
Under the 153-page rule change, migrants who fail to seek protection in a country through which they traveled on their way to the U.S. would be able to have their asylum claim denied.
According to the DHS, asylum seekers who cannot establish a valid asylum claim would be subject to deportation.
However, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) says the measure is temporary and has no measurable impact on curbing illegal migration.
“DHS’s response is a 153-page proposed ‘temporary’ rule change that is designed not to halt the flow of illegal migrants, but merely to create a more orderly process for people to abuse our asylum system,” Dan Stein, president of FAIR, said in a statement in response to the proposed DHS rule change. “In other words, the real objective is not to end large-scale asylum abuse, but rather to get them through the next election cycle.”
Within the DHS proposal, officials state that the majority of migrants are not eligible for asylum. According to FAIR, the DHS memo concedes that the majority of migrants coming across the southern border are seeking to defraud our asylum system.
The proposed rule change also follows a recent decision by the Biden administration to amend processes to allow the admission of tens of thousands of migrants and their immediate family members from certain central and South American countries.
“In combination with President Biden’s illegal exercise of parole authority to admit 30,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants, DHS is going all-in on a mobile app that allows migrants to schedule an appointment at a port of entry,” Stein said. “Simply by using the app, rather than sneaking across the border, nearly all will be waved into the U.S., where they will be allowed to live and work for years even though they are fleeing ‘economic and political instability,’ neither of which is legitimate grounds for asylum.”
Stein added, “And even after their asylum claims are denied, nearly all will remain.”
