The Biden administration may be walking back some of its repeal of Trump-era immigration controls, including restrictions on asylum applications. The change comes as the White House is ending Title 42, a major element that reduced flow across the border, this week.
The Biden White House will restrict asylum applications for migrants unless they applied for the status in countries they traveled through on their way to the United States.
In 2020, Biden said that Trump was “the first president in the history of the United States of America that anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country.”
The change may make a difference in the number of new arrivals to the southern border. The federal government has been training border agents to process these migrants under the new rules.
However, another major Biden push will likely lead to even larger numbers of migrants attempting to enter the country.
The announcement came just one day prior to the Biden administration’s planned end to the Title 42 immigration policy enacted by former President Donald Trump. The Trump-era policy was created during the pandemic, giving law enforcement more latitude to detain and deport migrants.
However, the planned end of the policy this week will likely lead to a large surge of migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) stated earlier this month that there were approximately 90,000 border crossings in late April in anticipation of the end of Title 42.
In addition, this included more than 22,000 people in the last three days of April. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) estimated that the flow of migrants will be up to 13,000 per day.
Between May 1 and today, federal officials announced that the flow of migrants across the border has already broken a previous record.
BREAKING NEWS: Border flooded by 10,000 migrants a day, setting new record https://t.co/rgaPherjRF
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 10, 2023
This includes more than 10,000 Tuesday and a similar number Monday. CBP estimated that almost half of the interactions with those crossing the border ended an expulsion under the rules of Title 42.
