SAN DIEGO — As World Refugee Day is honored, new numbers show that the United States is accepting far fewer applicants for asylum at the southern border than before the pandemic.
Almost six weeks after Title 42 officially ended, new data show that the rate of rejection for asylum seekers is now significantly higher than it was during the five years before Title 42 went into effect.
"These are desperate people trying to get away from violence, from economic hardship," said immigrant rights activist Enrique Morones, founder of the non-profit Gente Unida.
From May 12, the first full day the Biden administration's new immigration policy went into place through June 13, 46% of single adult migrants managed to pass initial asylum screenings at the U.S. border, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
In comparison, from 2014 to 2019, before the pandemic-era policy was put into place, 83% of asylum seekers had managed to pass the initial screening which permitted them to enter the U.S. and wait, sometimes for years, while their asylum cases worked their way through the court system.
"I'm not surprised at all," Morones told CBS 8. "The United States has never been a welcoming country."
Morones is blasting the new policy, which requires asylum seekers to prove that they first sought asylum in a third country on the way to the U.S., such as Mexico. Otherwise, they are presumed ineligible for asylum here.
"Most want to come to the United States," Morones added. "When they make them apply in another country it makes it even more difficult. These other countries are not safe."
However, Customs and Border Protection officials say that the new policy has so far been effective, coupled with expanding access to asylum screenings through the CBP One app. It continues to receive criticism, as well as regional processing centers that are being set up in Latin American countries like Colombia and Guatemala.
"I do think that the migrants are getting the message that it's more important now than ever to use the pathways that we've created to come into the country legally," said CBP Sector Chief Jason Owens.
Human smugglers remain one of the primary dangers for migrants seeking asylum, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
"We are watching what's happening in Mexico and other countries very closely," said Blas Nunez-Neto, Assistant Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy with the Department of Homeland Security. "We know that the smugglers will spread misinformation to put migrants' lives in peril for profit."
Homeland Security officials also point to the severe consequences for those migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. who cannot prove they were first denied asylum in a third country, including a five-year ban on re-entering the United States.
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