The United States reiterates that the majority of migrants who cross irregularly will not be able to request protection

The order is the harshest proclaimed by the Democratic president since he came to power in January 2021 and represents an important change in the way asylum is understood in the United States.

The country’s legislation stipulates that it is necessary to be on US soil to request asylum and that it is legal to request this protection even after having crossed irregularly.

The new restrictions seek to give immigration authorities the power to deport or send back to Mexico the majority of people they detain at the southern border.. They will only be lifted when irregular crossings drop from more than 2,500 to an average of 1,500 a day, a figure that has not been recorded since 2020.

As explained to EFE by Luis Miranda, deputy undersecretary of Department of Homeland Security Public Affairs (DHS), these restrictions came into effect at 12:01 a.m. this Wednesday and from that moment on, those who do not qualify for protection are being expelled under “a significantly higher standard” than that applied until now.

“This reduces the number of people who are likely to meet the final standard,” Miranda defined.

Biden’s executive order aims to reduce as much as possible the number of people who can enter the United States and accelerate deportations through a series of changes.

Among them is reducing the time that those who become in the custody of border authorities have to access legal advice from 24 to 7 hours, as reported by Biden Administration officials in a call with reporters.

In turn, Border Patrol agents will no longer need to ask people they detain if they fear being returned to their countries or Mexico, the first step in referring a person to “credible fear” interviews, where decides whether they will be allowed to apply for protection or not.

However, proving that they should access those protections will be more difficult, Miranda said. Specifically, those migrants will have to demonstrate that there is a “reasonable possibility” that they are at risk of torture or persecution if they are returned to their country of origin.

They will not access asylum as such, but rather the protections contained in the United Nations Convention against Torture, which prohibits expelling someone to a country where they may be tortured, and those of a figure known as “withholding of deportation,” which prevents the person from being removed but does not give them legal status.

Unaccompanied minors, people who are victims of trafficking, who are suffering a serious medical emergency or whose life or safety is in “imminent” risk are exem
pt from the new restrictions and will be able to request asylum, DHS detailed in a statement.

Since Title 42 was lifted in May 2023, a regulation that came into force during the pandemic and allowed immediate expulsions of migrants to Mexico, the Biden Government has implemented several measures to limit who can request asylum in the US. .UU and deport a greater number of people.

However, the real effect that these have had is limited because the US does not have the capacity to quickly review the applications or to deport or detain all those who arrive at the border, according to experts consulted by EFE.

The United States currently has an agreement with Mexico to return about 30,000 migrants per month, but only those from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.