Washington DC, October 1, :
As reported by Al Jazeera, the Joe Biden administration is imposing stricter regulations to monitor the number of asylum seekers entering the country and is also reducing the number of asylum seekers entering the country along the US-Mexico border. This comes just before the US presidential elections.
Notably, Vice President Kamala Harris's November opponent, Donald Trump, has taken a hardline position on immigration, accusing Democrats of being too 'loose' and permitting "hundreds of thousands" of illegal immigrants to enter the nation.
As reported by Al Jazeera, the topic of illegal immigration is generating a lot of heated debate and conversation among Americans. On Monday, new regulations were published that further limit asylum claims made by migrants in cases where US officials feel the southern border is overcrowded. These restrictions were initially put in place in June of this year.
"This action has been taken in parallel with other Administration actions that have both increased enforcement and delivered to asylum seekers safe and lawful pathways to humanitarian relief," stated Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security.
When the daily quota of migrants and asylum seekers attempting to enter the nation through official border crossings reached 2,500, the prior regulations allowed the US government to limit asylum access.
The new rules go into force on Tuesday, and in order to have them lifted roughly one month later, the daily numbers will need to remain below 1,500. In contrast to earlier reporting by Al Jazeera, which only included children of Mexican migrants, the administration is now adding all youngsters to that figure.
According to Amy Fischer, who is the director of refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA, "The United States must invest in a coordinated welcome and reception system that meets the immediate and long-term needs of people seeking safety." She argues that the current spending of billions of taxpayer dollars on cruel border policies causes devastating human rights and humanitarian crises.
The director of legal protection at the UNHCR, Elizabeth Tan, made the point that nations cannot punish those who seek refuge by entering the country illegally, as stated in Article 31 of the UN Refugee Convention.
"That article is there because many people flee life-threatening situations and they have no other choice but to take irregular manners of travel, and they often don't have the opportunity to obtain a travel document or a visa before they've fled their country," according to her.
Another group that condemned the new regulations as unlawful was the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
People escaping danger shouldn't have to wait around for an appointment to seek refuge; this is something Congress acknowledged when it passed the asylum law. The organization expressed their disapproval of the rule in a social media post, stating that it is both unethical and illegal.
As stated by Al Jazeera, US immigration law mandates that non-citizens present in the US who fear persecution "on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion" be given the opportunity to seek asylum through the due process.
Republicans claim Democrats are being too soft on the matter. If elected, Trump and his running mate JD Vance intend to implement what they call the "largest deportation campaign" that the United States has ever seen.
Harris promised last week to keep up the assault on illegal crossings at the southern border with Mexico that the Biden administration started.
While speaking in Arizona on Friday, Harris proclaimed, "The United States is a sovereign nation." "And I believe we have a duty to set rules at our border and to enforce them."
The initiatives implemented by the Biden administration have been justified as contributing to the decrease in the number of people crossing the border illegally. According to a Department of Homeland Security official cited by Al Jazeera, US border authorities have detained around 54,000 migrants and asylum seekers thus far in September, a significant decrease from a high of 250,000 in December.
