Today, the Biden administration announced a new final rule further curbing access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The rule will insert assessments for complex barriers to asylum into the initial asylum screening process. Individuals seeking protection have virtually no access to the outside world or legal representation before or during these screenings, which can occur as few as four hours after a person's entry into the United States. These changes will take effect on January 17, 2025, layering atop existing regulations that already have effectively ended access to asylum at the border for the vast majority of people seeking protection. The Department of Homeland Security finalized this rule over the grave objections of NIJC and other expert stakeholders.

Keren Zwick, the National Immigrant Justice Center’s (NIJC) litigation director, said the following in response:

“This final rule entrenches blatant disregard for people seeking refuge at our borders. The first Trump administration originally proposed a version of this rule, which the Biden administration first rejected based on due process concerns. Two years after this rejection, the Biden administration resurrected the Trump rule, and it has done so even though another one of its policies has already outright eliminated access to asylum for nearly all people coming to this country in search of protection. These changes are unnecessary and they are further evidence of the U.S. government’s outright abandonment of our obligations to provide protection to those seeking asylum.

“This rule violates current U.S. and international laws and will endanger the lives of individuals by returning them to the violence that they are fleeing. The United States should be a model of protecting people’s rights. Consequently, NIJC, in collaboration with Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, Human Rights First, and other asylum and refugee rights organizations, is challenging this anti-asylum regulation in court as we have prior anti-asylum rules.”