PANDEMIC-ERA RULES that have allowed US border guards to summarily expel hundreds of thousands of would-be asylum-seekers have expired.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to try to cross into the United States over the coming days, and face an uncertain future following the lapsing of legislation.

In an effort to avoid a surge, President Joe Biden’s administration has put in place rules that raise the bar for anyone claiming refuge.

“Starting tonight, people who arrive at the border without using a lawful pathway will be presumed ineligible for asylum,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said yesterday.

“We have 24,000 Border Patrol Agents and officers at the Southwest Border and have surged thousands of troops and contractors, and over a thousand asylum officers to help enforce our laws.”

The 3,200km border with Mexico has been regulated by Title 42, a health provision put in place to keep Covid infections at bay by refusing people entry, for the past three years.

But with the formal ending of the health emergency, that rule expired at 4am Irish time.

Asylum claims are now permitted again, but must in most cases be lodged before arriving at the border, or migrants face rapid expulsion from the US.

Asylum-seekers are required to book interviews via a smartphone app, which users frequently report is glitchy and that it presents an unfair obstacle for those without working phones or internet access.

The US government is trying to balance humanitarian principles of Biden’s Democratic Party and fears about hundreds of people crossing the border daily.

The Republican Party have stoked fears in border states and elsewhere by seizing on what they say is an “invasion”.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz claimed that there were 22,000 people camping just on the other side of the frontier from the southernmost Texas city of Brownsville alone.

“And I have to say I am angry, because this is deliberate, this was a decision that was made by President Joe Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris and congressional Democrats to open up the border to what is nothing less than an invasion,” he said.

But Democratic congressman Mike Levin of California accused Republicans of playing “political football” with the country’s broken immigration system.

They are more interested in “scor(ing) points than actually doing the work to fix it,” he said.

- © AFP 2023