New actions by the Biden administration to limit access to asylum at the U.S. southern border could mark a turning point in North America’s approach to new arrivals, as the United States struggles to balance its status as the world’s historical humanitarian leader with the record-breaking number of migrant encounters by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The restrictions—which allow U.S. authorities to turn back some irregularly arriving Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans without the chance to apply for asylum—have been described as a full embrace of the approach of the predecessor Trump administration, suggesting that putting the asylum system out of reach is no longer a fringe policy. Yet they also depend on collaboration with Mexico, which has agreed to accept returns each month of up to 30,000 of these nationals being expelled under the Title 42 public-health authority first enacted under the Trump administration. Nationals of these four countries were encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border more than 626,000 times in fiscal year (FY) 2022, yet have rarely been expelled under Title 42, in large part because of the origin countries’ tense diplomatic relations with Washington (or, in the case of Haiti, the country’s precarity). Notably, President Joe Biden announced the new policy right before departing to Mexico City for a meeting with the leaders of Canada and Mexico (after a brief stop at the border). It was part of a process, he said, of intraregional cooperation to create a more orderly and managed migration system, an objective of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection that the United States, Mexico, Canada, and 18 other countries signed in June 2022. On a global level, the restrictions are the latest in a wide-ranging post-pandemic remaking of the humanitarian protection landscape. Pushbacks, offshoring, and other barriers to asylum have risen in recent years, at times due to border restrictions ostensibly designed for public health amid the COVID-19 crisis. The Biden administration’s new efforts also create a pathway for up to 30,000 people per month from the four countries to enter the United States legally on humanitarian parole, so long as they have an eligible U.S.-based sponsor and meet other requirements, including not presenting themselves at the border but applying remotely via the CBP One app. The legal status, which includes work authorization, lasts for two years. The temporary nature of this protection represents a doubling down in the grant of temporary legal status outside the formal humanitarian protection framework. While some view this as a nimble way of adapting existing legal instruments to address new circumstances, others fear it will leave large numbers of migrants in perpetual limbo, unable to access a permanent legal status. For the Biden administration, the influx at the border has been both a logistical challenge and a serious political headache. The impact of the new policy, which has been attacked from the left and the right, will play out in coming months—and its future surely will ultimately be determined by the courts. Recent years have made clear that restrictions are much easier enacted than rolled back. Even if the administration successfully replaces Title 42, as it has sought to do, it may find that new restrictions will be difficult to untangle. Julian Hattem
Editor, Migration Information Source
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