New Biden Immigration Rule Echoes Trump-Era Racist Policies

The Biden administration’s newly proposed federal rule to address migration at the U.S.-Mexico border before Title 42 ends is getting pushback from immigration advocates.

by Imani Stephens, Prism

The Biden-Harris administration has proposed a federal rule that would amount to a near-total asylum ban. If implemented, a migrant who crosses the southwest border without U.S. authorization, has not followed the port of entry’s rules, requirements, and existing processes to seek asylum, and was denied asylum in a third country which they traveled through would be ineligible for asylum unless on a certain exception.

The new rule comes at the end of Title 42, an immigration policy decried by immigration advocates as xenophobic and racist. The obscure health law was implemented and weaponized by the Trump administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to expel migrants without allowing them to apply for asylum or other humanitarian protections.

Migrants from Colombia wait to be processed after turning themselves over to authorities at the United States and Mexico border May 12, 2021 in Yuma, Arizona.

“It is repackaging Trump’s policy under a different name, and ultimately will cause significant harm and suffering, in addition to violating U.S. and international law,” said Tasha Moro, the communications director for Justice Action Center.

Immigration advocates said they knew this was coming. In January, the Biden administration announced changes to the Trump-era policy that ends May 11, but immigration advocates like Moro said the proposed rule conflicts with the promises the president made during his campaign.