An estimated 13,000 illegal aliens are expected to cross the U.S.-Mexico border every day beginning Thursday. That’s more than double the daily average in March.
This expected spike in the number of migrants crossing the border illegally is the direct result of the end of Title 42, a public health measure set in place under the Trump administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Title 42 has allowed Border Patrol to quickly expel some illegal aliens from the country. Without the measure, Border Patrol has little power under the policies of the Biden administration to turn illegal aliens away.
With illegal alien encounters expected to rise with the end of Title 42, the Biden administration has announced a new asylum rule effective once Title 42 expires.
The new rule requires illegal aliens to first seek asylum in another country they travel through and be denied before they seek asylum in the U.S.
“If individuals do not access their lawful pathways, the pathways that we have made available to them, they will face a rebuttable presumption, but a presumption of ineligibility,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said of the new rule during a press conference Wednesday.
Mayorkas’ reference to “lawful pathways” includes use of the CBP One mobile app (a reference to Customs and Border Protection), which allows illegal aliens to schedule an appointment at a port of entry to seek asylum.
But President Joe Biden’s new rule is already drawing criticism.
“The asylum rule simply directs everyone towards using the made-up, illegal mass parole programs that the Biden administration erroneously labels ‘lawful pathways’ by using the CBP One mobile app to get a parole appointment at an interior airport,” Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, told The Daily Signal. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
“In the long run,” Hankinson continued, “this won’t discourage anyone. Those who can use the parole app process will, those who can’t will just come anyway and cross illegally. The best we can hope for is that the new asylum rule reduces flows about as much as Title 42 did, and things remain status quo—a poorly managed disaster.”
Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain what the end of Title 42 means for the security of America’s border and why Biden’s new asylum rule won’t solve the current crisis.
Listen to the podcast below: