Under a new asylum rule proposed by the Biden administration in February, migrants seeking protection in the U.S. can be denied if they don’t first seek protection in a country they pass through. It’s a so-called transit ban and rights activists warn it could worsen a border crisis that began under the Trump administration — family separation.
The Trump-era zero tolerance policy gave U.S. border officers the ability to refer adult migrants for criminal prosecution for crossing the border, and forcibly separate children from their parents, including families seeking asylum.
Nearly 4,000 children were separated from their parents as a result, according to data released by the Department of Homeland Security.
Gladis Molina Alt is the executive director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights, whose organization has worked with separated families and members of the Biden administration's task force trying to reconnect them. She says under the newly-proposed transit rule, families will face the same, impossible decisions when they reach the border.
"Well, the transit ban applies to you, you can’t apply for asylum, we have to put you in expedited removal proceedings, and send you back. Maybe the parents say, 'OK but I want my children to be safe, so I guess we have to separate so my child can get protection, because I can’t.'"
Agency data shows the Biden administration's family reunification task force has reunified almost 3000 children separated from their parents under the zero tolerance policy between 2017 and 2021. While some are in the process of reuniting with their parents, almost 1,000 children are still separated.
