ALABAMA -For several months already, the flow of migrants and asylum seekers trying to cross into the United States has been decreasing thanks in part to President Joe Biden's executive action at limiting the amount of asylum claims per day. As apprehensions at the southern border continue to drop, some U.S. officials say that due to the success of the measure, the administration is planning to issue a regulation that would make it far less likely for the set of rules to be lifted in the near future.
The rules stipulate that the crackdown on asylum-seeking will go into effect once the seven-day average of daily encounters surpasses 2,500, and it can be lifted once it drops below 1,500. Figures were much higher when the executive action was announced, meaning the ban began immediately. But as they continue to drop, standing between 1,600 and 1,700 a day, the possibility of lifting the ban is now a real possibility.
That is why, according to two U.S. officials, the Biden administration is planning to announce changes to the regulation as early as Sept. 30 to implement an amended proclamation.
The two officials, who requested anonymity to discuss internal government plans, told CBS News that the envisioned changes would make it harder for officials to end the partial asylum ban by tweaking the threshold at which it would be deactivated. The last time the average of daily unlawful border crossings was below 1,500 for a month was in the summer of 2020, when the pandemic depressed migration, according to federal data.
Under the planned changes, asylum restrictions would only deactivate if the seven-day average stays below 1,500 for 28 days. The changes being drafted would also include more migrants in the calculations used for the deactivation threshold. Under the new set of rules, crossings by all unaccompanied children will be included.
Border crossings had been dropping throughout the year as immigration became an electoral liability for then-President Joe Biden. After seeing a record 200,000 illegal crossings in December of last year, they began to really plummet when the executive action took place on June 5.
Although illegal crossings have dramatically dropped in recent months, immigrant advocacy organizations are not thrilled with the Biden administration's decision to make it harder to lift the ban.
Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney leading a lawsuit against President Biden's asylum restrictions, said that the administration is "unfortunately doubling down on a patently unlawful rule that is putting people in grave danger and will hopefully be blocked by the courts in our lawsuit."
Just days after the June 5 executive action went into effect, ACLU and other immigrant advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration with attorneys arguing that the decision violates a Congress' statute allowing migrants to request asylum regardless of whether they get to the country through a port of entry.
Biden's series of measures put out in June are just one of the many other ways the U.S. is trying to limit the influx of migrants traveling up north with aims to reach its border with Mexico. In August, the United States began funding repatriation flights for migrants trying to cross into Panama from the Darien Gap. A little over a month since its inception, 11 flights have taken place, returning over 400 migrants to their country of origin.
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