Mayorkas denies Biden’s immigration coverage is the same as Trump’s

Secretary of Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denied on Sunday that President Biden’s immigration coverage is equal to former President Trump’s amid criticism of the White Home for weighing insurance policies some see as detrimental to migrants.

ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week” stated the ACLU is “successfully” saying that Biden’s present immigration coverage isn’t any totally different than the asylum bans below Trump amid a brand new lawsuit the group filed final week. Mayorkas denied this evaluation, saying that their present coverage just isn’t a ban.

“Completely incorrect. Disagree with each facet of that assertion. This isn’t an asylum ban,” Mayorkas advised Karl. “Now we have a humanitarian obligation in addition to a matter of safety to chop the ruthless smugglers out. That may be a duty of presidency and we’re doing that.”

“In a single essential sense. It’s the identical because the Trump coverage,” Karl responded.

“Nicely the Trump coverage was you needed to first apply for asylum in a 3rd, abroad, should you had been coming from from south of Mexico. That’s precisely what you’re doing,” Karl added.

Mayorkas denied that’s what the Biden administration was doing, saying that individuals who haven’t tried to hunt reduction on different international locations would want a “larger threshold of proof” to qualify for asylum.

“What the our rule gives is that a person should entry these lawful pathways that we’ve made out there to them. In the event that they haven’t, then they will need to have sought reduction in one of many international locations by which they’ve traveled and been denied,” he stated.

“And in the event that they haven’t accomplished both, it’s not a ban on asylum, however they’ve the next threshold of proof that they’ve to fulfill. That may be a presumption of ineligibility that may be overcome. It’s not a ban. And so I disagree with that in each regard,” he continued.

The immigration coverage in query is a rule that limits asylum by barring individuals who don’t first apply and get denied abroad alongside their path to the U.S. from in search of asylum. The ACLU filed a lawsuit final week paying homage to a lawsuit it filed and gained towards Trump, arguing that the rule violated U.S. asylum legal guidelines.

Title 42, a coverage that permits the expulsion of asylum seekers all through the COVID-19 pandemic, expired final week. Lawmakers and officers had been anticipating a surge of migrants to try to cross the border, however Mayorkas stated that the variety of migrant encounters on the border truly dropped by 50 % within the days after the coverage ended.