Senate Fails to Curtail Biden’s Plan to Rubber-Stamp Asylum Claims
FAIR Take | May 2022
On May 26, the Senate voted on S.J.Res.46, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the Biden administration’s proposed asylum rule explicitly designed to speed up the processing of frivolous asylum seekers at our southern border.
The resolution would use the Congressional Review Act, a law that gives Congress the power to overturn federal agency actions – such as the Biden administration’s asylum rule. That rule, “Procedures for Credible Fear Screening and Consideration of Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT Protection Claims by Asylum Officers,” would rubber-stamp asylum applications at the border.
As FAIR noted in a thorough public comment, the rule allows asylum officers to rubber-stamp frivolous asylum claims. It is a thinly-veiled attempt to normalize the high number of illegal aliens surging across our southern border and mask the increased surge that the Biden administration anticipates will occur whenever Title 42 is no longer in place.
The rule – like nearly every Biden administration policy change – does nothing to discourage illegal immigration, nor does it eliminate any incentive to make a fraudulent credible fear claim. Rather, the rule seeks to simplify and weaken the credible fear review process, which will result in a higher rate of aliens without adequate claims gaining asylum or receiving protection from removal. This will encourage more illegal immigration and fraudulent asylum claims, which is the Biden administration’s end goal.
Senator Ron Johnson, a member of Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs (HSGAC), introduced S.J.Res.46 in order to stop this rule from going into effect. The Senate failed to pass the joint resolution by a vote of 46 to 48. All Republicans voted in favor of the FAIR-supported resolution, joined by just one Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia. It is worth noting that several Democrat senators who have been critical of the border crisis, such as Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona, voted against it.
Frustratingly, Senate Republicans could have passed the resolution if not for some unexplained absences. To address this, Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) submitted a motion to reconsider, meaning that the resolution could come back to the floor when the entire conference will be present.
In failing to pass this resolution, Senate Democrats made their position crystal clear: they welcome more of the Biden administration’s chaos at the Southwest border.