The “Securing Our Borders” Executive Order (EO) includes a number of directives that impact border management and access to asylum and other forms of immigration protections. It directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to get “complete operational control of the borders of the United States,” and to achieve this, directs it to build more physical barriers, deploy sufficient personnel, and to pursue criminal charges against persons who violate immigration laws and those who assist them. It also directs DHS to expand its use of immigrant detention, and not release migrants while they await their hearings before immigration courts and adjudicators.
The EO directs DHS to resume the “Migrant Protection Protocols” policy, which is commonly known as the “Remain in Mexico” program. Remain in Mexico required asylum seekers to await their U.S. immigration court hearings in (often dangerous) border areas, also making it difficult for asylum-seekers to access attorneys and legal aid. The Biden administration had halted the Remain in Mexico policy given its severe humanitarian and due process deficiencies, which were criticized by many, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The EO also ends the program set up by the Biden administration that allowed migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (known as the CHNV program) to come to the United States to pursue their immigration cases if they were sponsored by someone in the United States, also allowing them to be employed with a work permit that granted them workplace rights. It also ended the CBP One phone app, which provided a process for persons abroad to make an appointment with U.S. immigration authorities, allowing for a more orderly process for individuals to request asylum at ports of entry along the U.S. southern border.