Attorney: Biden Administration Makes Concessions To Ease Asylum Restrictions

Speaker 1: 00:00 The Biden administration is easing up on harsh restrictions against asylum seekers at the border. As part of a settlement with the ACLU, the government will allow about 250 people a day to cross the border and begin the asylum process and obscure a law enacted by the Trump administration during the pandemic has virtually shut down the asylum process for the past year, leaving thousands of asylum seekers stranded at the U S Mexico border in Texas, and here in San Diego, migrant advocates say the change in policy is a good start, but the details remain unclear. And joining me is KPBS reporter backs, Rivlin Nadler, max. Welcome. Good to be here. How will this new agreement by the Biden administration change what's been going on at the border Speaker 2: 00:49 Since the pandemic began, people have not been allowed to cross the border in any formal way to, um, apply for asylum. People have been going over the fence or passing in the desert and, and some of those people have been allowed in to pursue their asylum claims inside the U S this will more formalize the process and, and builds kind of off, uh, an ad hoc process that several non-governmental organizations and aid organizations and lawyers in a Tiquana and South of the border have been doing, which is getting people who are really vulnerable in, in places like Tijuana and whereas, and getting them to a port of entry so they could enter the United States. This has been done informally, and now it looks like this is taking more of a formal sheen. Speaker 1: 01:33 Oh, well. So what category of asylum seeker fits the most vulnerable criteria? Speaker 2: 01:38 Uh, so who would be the most vulnerable? Well, obviously that goes to, um, people who have, uh, gender or sexual identities that make them targets. Uh, you have families, um, with especially young children and, uh, people with serious medical conditions. Speaker 1: 01:56 And how about that law that shut down the border under the Trump administration, will that remain in place? Speaker 2: 02:02 So there's not exactly a law. It's a code that has been applied by the Trump administration and continued by the byte administration known as title 42. The center for disease control. Uh, pretty much from day one has said, this is not in any way, going to help prevent the spread of COVID people go across the border daily, formerly the virus has gone back and forth across the United States borders since the beginning. So basically this title 42 is really vulnerable to legal challenges and something that the American civil liberties union has been effective in, in challenging. So that's something that the Biden administration really wants to make sure doesn't happen is that the ACLU strikes down title 42 in its entirety and reopen the border and establish, um, uh, an asylum system along the Southern border. Once again, as is the United States international obligation, Speaker 1: 02:52 But it's entitled 42 extensively for, because of the pandemic to keep people from into the United States. Speaker 2: 03:00 That's extensively. What the rationale has been in the United States has said, it's going to keep title 42 in place throughout the coronavirus pandemic. And whenever that might end, if it does in fact end, Speaker 1: 03:12 What's been the reaction to this change in policy announced this week. I believe both sides of the immigration debate have problems with it. Yes. Speaker 2: 03:20 So, I mean, if you're coming to it from a, an immigrant rights standpoint, the fact of the matter is that the asylum process in the United States has been halted it's in its entirety during the COVID-19 pandemic and had been significantly curtailed even before then. So basically I saw somebody, um, describe it as means testing asylum, which is basically picking out the people even before they cross, that will be allowed to apply for asylum. When asylum has a rate that everybody has. And the sole requirement is that you just have to be in the U S to, to claim it. So basically people who are coming out from that angle are really upset that this is codifying something that was made by the Trump administration. On the other side, you have people who say now is not the time to bring in asylum seekers into the U S especially during a pandemic. And that these numbers, um, you know, would have a significant impact in these border communities. But as we know, many of these families don't stay in these cities, uh, for much longer than 72 hours. Speaker 1: 04:16 How was the border crossing of immigrant families being handled here in San Diego? Speaker 2: 04:21 So there are several organizations working South of the border and on both sides of the border, working in shelters, in Tijuana, uh, groups like a low trow lotto, border angels, Jewish family service, who are identifying families that, you know, they'll give the names to a customs and border protection, or in this new system, maybe the ACLU to forward to DHS who will then pre-clear them to enter at the port of entry. I was there two weeks ago when a family was going through this process, when a customs and border protection agent had their name on a list and allow them to enter the U S to claim asylum while several other families who came to the port of entry at the same exact time, because their name was not on the list and they had not been identified and they had not been pre-cleared were not allowed to enter the U S so there's a lot of families who are waiting for this process. Speaker 2: 05:08 And a lot of NGOs kind of working nonstop to identify who would qualify for this. And like I said, it's ad hoc. And for those families that don't get through, they now have that really difficult decision that we'd been seeing along the border over the past several months, where families will self separate South of the border, um, meaning that they will send their children ahead alone, because we know unaccompanied children are being accepted into the U S one part of this policy is to kind of discourage families from doing that by adding this release valve. And as we see the numbers of unaccompanied children arriving at the Southwest border have been declining or leveling out for at least a month right now. So even this informal start of this program, might've helped lessen those numbers and just general seasonal migration patterns. We're going to begin seeing, uh, once the main numbers come out and especially this month numbers just going, because that's normally what happens at around this time of year. Speaker 1: 06:00 I've been speaking with KPBS reporter max we're of Lynn Nadler and max, thank you. Thank you. Speaker 3: 06:12 [inaudible].