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Setting the Record Straight on 10 Misconceptions about Migration and Asylum at the US-Mexico Border

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The United States has long received refugees who have fled their homes to escape violence and persecution.
While some refugees arrive to the United States through the US Refugee Admissions Program, others travel to the US to apply for asylum. However they arrive, people flee their home countries because they fear persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

Despite this, seeking asylum at the US border has for years become more difficult and dangerous. Although seeking asylum at the border is a right guaranteed under US and international law, misconceptions and even falsehoods about the asylum process and migration at the US-Mexico border are common among the public and US law- and policymakers. Besides persistent myths, many people are unaware of how the new asylum ban restricts the ability and right to seek asylum. Below are 10 things to know about the asylum system and migration at the US-Mexico border today.

1. The asylum ban forces vulnerable people to wait in danger in Mexico. It also has not decreased displacement and migration.

The Biden administration’s asylum ban rule, known officially as “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways,” effective since May 11, 2023, has created extreme limits on the ability to seek asylum in the US. A federal court has found the ban in clear violation of US law.

The Biden administration’s claims that their new asylum ban is a “success” that is responsible for a decrease in the numbers of migrants crossing the border since the end of Title 423 is also wrong. From June to July 2023,
Border Patrol apprehensions increased by more than 30 percent, and apprehensions of families tripled. Such increases in arrivals suggests that the asylum ban, like many other restrictive policies in the past, are misguided attempts at deterrence that do not stop people from migrating and seeking safety for their families.
The Women’s Refugee Commission’s (WRC’s) monitoring found that the ban has created confusion for those trying to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border, and that most wait in dangerous and insecure conditions in Mexico. Those who cannot wait may cross between ports of entry along dangerous routes and risk serious injury or death. Such a policy cannot be considered a success.

2. Previous policies, such as Remain in Mexico and Title 42, limited access to asylum, harmed thousands of people, and failed to deter migration.

Policies that expel people back to Mexico, prevent them from requesting asylum, force them to wait in Mexico, or block access to asylum at ports of entry created chaos at the US-Mexico border. Remain in Mexico, under which US border officials returned non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims were adjudicated in US immigration courts, resulted in thousands of kidnappings and other violent crimes against migrants and was a due process disaster. Title 42 similarly resulted in thousands of assaults against migrants, denied people their basic right to seek asylum, and promoted more dangerous crossings between ports of entry via smugglers.