Earlier this year, the Biden Administration issued a new order regarding asylum. Essentially, asylum is not going to be used as long as there are more than 2,500 illegal crossings every day on the southern border of the United States. The new order was written to go into effect when those daily crossings hit the 2,500-person level. But since the daily crossings have already been at or above that level for years, it went into effect right away.
In order for asylum to be used again, the number of daily crossings has to drop to below 1,500. It then has to stay there for two weeks.
What these numbers really mean
The big thing to keep in mind is that it is very unlikely that illegal crossings will drop back to 1,500 per day anytime soon. After all, they have not been at that level for almost Biden‘s entire presidency. The month that he assumed the office, due to the pandemic, border crossings were at that lower level. But they have increased since then and stayed higher, as they are right now.
In other words, asylum has effectively been stopped indefinitely. It would take a major change in activity at the border to see two weeks with low traffic levels. And even if that happened, it may only reinstitute asylum temporarily. If the number of illegal crossings went back up, the ban would go back into effect.
That doesn’t mean that asylum is impossible or that there are no other options to immigrate to the United States. But it is important for people to understand all of the options they have as the laws change.