The National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) condemns the Biden administration’s decision to further entrench illegal asylum restrictions that result in serious due process and human rights violations. The proclamation and final rule issued yesterday expand and make permanent the punitive restrictions implemented in June that shut off access to asylum for the vast majority of people arriving at the U.S. border, no matter how strong their claims.
NIJC and partners sued the Biden administration over the president’s June proclamation and interim rule that preceded yesterday’s announcement. NIJC also joined humanitarian and legal services organizations in releasing a report in July 2024 documenting the egregious due process and human rights violations people experienced when they sought safety and were subject to the interim rule.
NIJC Director of Litigation Keren Zwick responded with the following statement:
“Finalizing the June 2024 rule makes permanent an asylum ban that is already illegal on its face, without curing any of the legal or humanitarian harms that the rule has already caused. This action will only lead to more confusion at the border and serious rights abuses for people seeking safety. The U.S. must adhere to domestic and international laws protecting the rights of people to seek asylum and refuge regardless of their manner of entry.”
The final rule cements egregious barriers to asylum that were introduced in the interim rule, including:
- Under the rule, people who entered the United States without pre-approval or advance CBP One appointments are generally not eligible for asylum.
- Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers are no longer required to screen people for fear of return. Instead, to be considered for lesser refugee protections, individuals and families must “manifest” or “shout out” their fears proactively, even though CBP has a disastrous record of intimidating asylum seekers or failing to record people’s expressed fears. For example, NIJC represents an individual who tried to present a written statement indicating his fear, and that paper was disregarded. Other clients tried to express a fear only to have those oral statements ignored.
- For many people who manage to manifest their fear, the rule still bars access to asylum. For people seeking to remain safely in the United States with lesser protections, the rule creates the most severe restrictions ever imposed since the advent of the modern asylum system, including the use of a new, exceptionally high screening standard.
The final rule also extends the amount of time that Department of Homeland Security personnel’s daily encounters with people seeking to enter the country between ports of entry must stay below an arbitrary number before the new rule’s restrictions are lifted. Unlike the interim rule, the final rule counts unaccompanied children from non-contiguous countries as “daily encounters,” increasing the likelihood that the numbers exceed the threshold and that ordinary asylum protections remain suspended.