DHS and DOJ Plan to Strengthen the Biden-Harris Administration’s Asylum Restriction Rule
The ‘Securing the Border’ IFR Still Permits a Crisis Level of Border Encounters
By Elizabeth Jacobs on October 25, 2024
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a new update to their temporary asylum rule in early October. This rule, called the Securing the Border Interim Final Rule, implements President Biden’s 212(f) Proclamation to restrict asylum eligibility from any person who crosses the border illegally between ports of entry (POEs), with limited exceptions.
The president’s proclamation, however, was initially designed to only go into effect when encounters at the border exceed 2,500 per day and would be suspended when encounters drop below 1,500 per day 14 calendar days after DHS makes a determination that there has been a seven-consecutive-day average of fewer than 1,500 encounters between ports of entries. The president issued a new proclamation on September 27, 2024, to instead require that encounters must remain below 1,500 encounters between POEs for 28 consecutive calendar days before the 14-calendar-day waiting period is triggered. Biden also amended the proclamation to require DHS to include unaccompanied alien children (UACs) from non-contiguous countries when calculating the number of encounters for the purposes of the proclamation.
The new Securing the Border IFR was issued to implement the changes in the rule to match those made in the president’s September 27 order. Additionally, to ensure the rule can function even if the September 27 proclamation were rendered unlawful by a court order, DHS included a severability clause to insulate the rule.
https://cis.org/Jacobs/DHS-and-DOJ-Plan-Strengthen-BidenHarris-Administrations-Asylum-Restriction-Rule
