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What to Know About Biden’s Controversial New Rule for Asylum Seekers

The Biden administration this week unveiled a plan to impose new restrictions on who can seek asylum in the United States, by penalizing migrants who cross the border without authorization or fail to apply for protections in another country if they pass through one en route.

The proposed regulation, which will make it easier to quickly deport asylum seekers who are disqualified under the new rule, was widely condemned by immigration and human rights advocates. They compared it to a 2019 Trump administration measure known as the asylum “transit ban,” a policy that required asylum seekers from anywhere but Mexico to request asylum in one of the other countries they traveled through before reaching the United States.

Kimiko Hirota, a policy adviser at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said in a statement that she and her colleagues “are horrified by this updated version of President Trump’s transit ban,” calling the proposal “a slap in the face to families seeking safety and to U.S. and international law.”

Learn more about WRC’s work on asylum, legal, and human rights.