Biden shores up asylum limits, likely extending border crackdown indefinitely

President Biden's administration on Monday announced new regulations to shore up the partial asylum ban it enacted at the U.S. southern border in June, likely extending the strict immigration policy indefinitely, through the presidential election and beyond.

Biden administration officials have hailed the asylum restrictions as the main catalyst behind a massive drop in illegal crossings by migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border this year. Over the past three months, those crossings, which reached record highs last year, have remained at a four-year low. 

The policy has disqualified most migrants crossing the southern border illegally from asylum and scrapped a longstanding requirement for U.S. immigration officials to ask would-be deportees if they fear being harmed in their home countries before sending them there.

The asylum crackdown was meant to be temporary, contingent on the seven-day average of daily illegal border crossing remaining above 1,500. But under the new rules, officials will only be able to lift the policy if that average is below 1,500 for 28 straight days, not just a week.

A senior official from the Department of Homeland Security, which is publishing the updated rules alongside the Justice Department, said the policy tweaks are designed to "ensure that the drop in encounters (of migrants) is a sustained decrease," not just a "short-term" downturn. The official asked for anonymity during a call with reporters on Monday. 

CBS News first reported the administration would move to cement its asylum limits last week. The changes also include adding more migrants, specifically unaccompanied children, to the data used to calculate the crossings average.

The asylum restrictions affect most migrants entering the U.S. between legal border entry points, known as ports of entry. Those who use Biden administration programs that allow migrants to enter the country with government's permission are exempted, including the roughly 1,500 migrants processed daily at ports of entry through an appointment system. Unaccompanied children and those with acute health medical conditions are also exempted.

While migrant crossings at the southern border dropped earlier this year from their peak in December 2023, mostly due to an immigration crackdown by Mexico, they fell precipitously after the asylum limits took effect in early June. In July, August and September, Border Patrol recorded between 54,000 and 58,000 illegal crossings per month, the lowest levels since September 2020, during the Trump administration. For comparison, illegal border crossings soared to 250,000 in December, a record high.  

Fewer migrants have been released into the U.S. and the percentage of those deported has increased since the policy was implemented. A senior DHS official said the U.S. has deported or returned more than 121,000 migrants to over 140 countries during this time period.