On June 4, 2024, the Biden administration issued a presidential proclamation and immediately implemented an asylum shutdown rule at the U.S.-Mexico border that adds to and exacerbates the harms inflicted by the Biden administration’s May 2023 asylum ban. As the United States and the world mark World Refugee Day, these policies endanger refugees’ lives at our doorstep and strand them at risk of harm in Mexico, arbitrarily bar access to lifesaving asylum protection, and return to persecution people seeking protection in violation of U.S. and international law:
- People seeking asylum are being summarily deported to danger and denied statutorily required fear screenings or asylum hearings by U.S. border officers. The recent asylum shutdown rule eliminates the longstanding requirement that border officers ask an individual, in their language, whether they have a fear of return before being deported without a hearing. For example, Mexican asylum seekers have been deported to their country of feared harm without a fear screening or asylum hearing, and despite some requesting asylum or expressing to U.S. border officers their fear of harm in Mexico, as recounted to Human Rights First and Kino Border Initiative. A number of asylum seekers reported to Human Rights First that U.S. officers said, “There is no asylum,” “The border is now closed,” or otherwise ignored their indications of fear of return.
- Families, adults, and children are being denied access to legal advice or representation if they manage to get referred for fear screenings. Meaningful access to legal counsel was already obstructed under rushed fear screenings in CBP custody, yet recent changes render it nearly impossible reducing legal access to as little as four hours – down from an already deficient 24 hours – for interviews that are conducted seven days a week. For example, an asylum seeker was deported with no notice to their attorney or opportunity to have a hearing with an immigration judge despite the attorney’s request.
- Adults and children are stranded in Mexico at risk of torture, sexual assault, kidnappings, and other targeted harm while for a CBP One appointment. CBP One appointments have stagnated at 1,450 daily since last June while demand for an appointment will now further increase under these additional punitive restrictions on access to asylum.
Policies that block, ban, punish and try to deter refugees seeking protection spur disorder, are ineffective and a boon to organized criminal groups, and risk refugees’ lives. Instead, the Biden administration and Congress should take humane and effective steps to provide prompt, equitable, and just access to asylum to all people seeking protection. These include steps to increase the number of languages in which CBP One is offered and appointments, properly fund asylum and immigration court adjudications, and continue to strengthen regional resettlement, parole, and protection initiatives.
