GOP border bill would gut pathways to asylum

A Republican border and immigration bill set to come to the House floor Thursday would represent one of the biggest clawbacks of asylum rights in decades if enacted, experts warn. 

The GOP is aiming to pass the bill May 11 — the same day President Biden is set to lift Title 42. It’s a move that will restore some access to asylum rights for the first time since the start of the pandemic, even as the administration rolls out new limitations on who and how people seek such protections.

...Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, said the bill would “effectively end the system of asylum that we’ve had for the last 43 years.”  

“It is harder to determine who could apply for asylum under this bill than who couldn’t,” he said...more