WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is considering actions that would make President Joe Biden’s tough but temporary asylum restrictions almost impossible to lift, people familiar with the plans said Wednesday.
The move would essentially turn what had been a short-term fix into a central feature of the asylum system in America. And it would be yet another sign that the country is moving away from the traditional American practice of allowing anyone who sets foot on U.S. soil the opportunity to seek protection.
The changes under consideration would build on the executive order that Biden issued in June, which blocked a vast majority of asylum claims at the southern border and allowed agents to turn people back quickly.
U.S. officials have said that the order has deterred migrants from making the dangerous trip north and resulted in a dramatic drop-off in asylum claims. The relative calm comes as Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, tries to fend off Republican attacks over immigration.
Under the June order, the restrictions on asylum would lift when the number of people trying to cross illegally each day drops below 1,500 for one week, a concession meant to show progressive Democrats that Biden was merely responding to a surge at the border — not making a permanent change.
Crossings have not fallen that low, even with Biden’s restrictions in effect. Now, administration officials want to extend the required period of lower crossings to several weeks, according to two people with knowledge of the order. That change would make it extraordinarily unlikely that the restrictions would lift any time soon.
White House officials say no decision has been made yet on any changes to border policy. A spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security said the president’s earlier action had been successful in reducing illegal crossings by more than 50%, but declined to confirm that a new, tougher approach was under consideration.
Since Biden’s executive order went into effect, the number of arrests at the southern border has dropped precipitously. In June, more than 83,000 arrests were made, then in July the number went down to just over 56,000 arrests. Arrests in August ticked up to 58,000, according to a homeland security official, but those figures still pale in comparison to the record figures in December, when around 250,000 migrants crossed.
Under Biden’s executive order, only people who enter the country at an official port of entry with an appointment can be considered for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. There are some exceptions for unaccompanied children, victims of human trafficking and people facing serious medical emergencies or threats. But for the most part, people are turned back quickly.
Before the new rules went into effect, migrants would cross the border illegally and seek out border agents to surrender. The underfunded and understaffed immigration system, plagued with backlogs, could not keep up. So migrants frequently would be released into the United States to wait, sometimes for years, for their cases to come up.
Administration officials say the new requirements make the process more orderly. More than 1,000 people a day are allowed to make appointments on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection app, so there is still a pathway to claim asylum in the United States.
But immigration advocates have said the order is far too restrictive and weeds out people who need help. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in June arguing that the order, among other things, violated legal protections for people seeking protection.
In court filings arguing against the lawsuit, U.S. officials have said the order has been a game-changer on the ground. Royce Bernstein Murray, a senior DHS official, argued that the restrictions should remain in place.
Otherwise, she wrote, “encounters will increase sharply — placing even more stress on our operations at the border, and on communities throughout the country.”