Faith-based refugee resettlement agencies denounce new asylum rule
A migrant gestures to Texas National Guard members standing behind razor wire on the bank of the Rio Grande, seen from Matamoros, Mexico on May 11. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
Many faith-based refugee agencies have long called for the end of the emergency health rule that allowed the government to quickly expel undocumented immigrants crossing the border.
But now that the rule has expired, those same faith-based refugee agencies are denouncing the replacement rules announced this week by the Biden administration, which they say would basically ban asylum.
Thousands of migrants amassed at the Mexico-US border as the emergency public health rule, known as Title 42, ended on May 11. The rule, put in place by the Trump administration, allowed border patrol to immediately expel anyone trying to enter the country illegally as a way to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Previously, migrants applying for asylum could wait in the country— sometimes for years—until their asylum claims were heard by a judge.)
