US President Joe Biden has signed an order tightening asylum rules. According to the new regulations, individuals crossing the country’s border illegally will be denied asylum and deported with a five-year ban on re-entry to the United States.
This is important news for Georgia, as in recent years, thousands of its citizens have migrated to the US through Mexico in search of a better life, fleeing unemployment and poverty. Emigration remains a significant challenge for the country—official statistics show that in 2023, 245,064 people emigrated from Georgia, marking a 95.6% increase compared to 2022.
The new measures will take effect immediately in the US and will apply to unaccompanied children as well as illegal immigrants who are deemed to be ‘at serious risk to their health and safety,’ and victims of human trafficking.
However, these rules will be temporary and will only be activated during periods when the average number of illegal migrants detained at the border exceeds 2,500 per day, and will be lifted when this number drops to 1,500 per day.
The details of how deportation will be carried out remain unclear.
Reuters compares these measures to the policies of former US President Donald Trump. Upon assuming office in 2021, Joe Biden immediately rescinded the state of emergency at the border with Mexico, imposed by Trump in 2019. Biden also abandoned the construction of a border wall along the Mexico border, as Trump had planned to do.