The Biden administration recently announced a proposed regulation that would all but eliminate access to asylum for
the overwhelming number of asylum seekers who come to the United States via the southwest border. But the
regulation doesn’t put it that way. The regulation, announced on February 21, would create a new asylum restriction for
adults and families who present themselves unannounced to U.S. border officials to request asylum, and had traveled
through another country on their way to the U.S. without applying for asylum – and being denied — there. The
government insists that every asylum seeker has the power to avoid the ban by sticking to what it calls “lawful
pathways”–a piece of spin that implies it’s unlawful to seek asylum if you enter the United States between ports of
entry. And the regulation creates a whole procedure to determine whether and how the ban applies.