Legal service providers and border organizations report rampant due process and human rights violations and inconsistent and confusing application of new rule
On June 4, 2024, the Biden administration took its latest step toward fully abandoning a commitment to humane border policies by issuing a presidential proclamation followed by an Interim Final Rule (IFR) titled “Securing the Border.” These executive actions, which went into effect immediately, severely limit eligibility for asylum protections for the majority of people arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border without regard to the viability of their legal claims for asylum.
In addition to barring asylum for most migrants, these executive actions create insurmountable obstacles for seeking other types of protection by adding confusing and unfair new legal standards. Some of the current practices implemented alongside the new IFR also violate the government’s legal obligations concerning the protection of children in immigration proceedings.
Combined with the disastrous May 2023 asylum ban (formally referred to as the “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” Rule), these policies flout the U.S. government’s legal obligations to refugees by summarily deporting them to danger, stranding people seeking asylum in Mexico where they are vulnerable to severe harm, and, in some instances, compelling family separation.
This report is a collaboration between humanitarian and legal services organizations including the National Immigrant Justice Center, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Hope Border Institute, Refugees International, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, the National Immigration Law Center, Human Rights First, Women’s Refugee Commission, and Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project. It includes stories of more than 30 people who have sought asylum at the border since the asylum ban took effect and have encountered insurmountable due process violations.
Read the report (PDF)