“The President’s actions are working because of their tough response to illegal crossings,” Mayorkas said during the press conference held on the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Immigration experts, however, say it’s too soon for a victory lap, and the changes violate migrants’ rights to seek asylum.

Just after taking office, US President Joe Biden vowed to put an end to what he termed the "moral and ethical" shame of Donald Trump's immigration policies. The Trump administration had adopted a strict border policy and the Biden White House promised a more "humane" approach.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections.

The Democratic president is expected to unveil the actions - his most aggressive unilateral move yet to control the numbers at the border - at the White House on Tuesday at an event to which border mayors have been invited.

The White House is finalizing plans for a U.S.-Mexico border clampdown that would shut off asylum requests and automatically deny entrance to migrants once the number of people encountered by American border officials exceeded a new daily threshold, with President Joe Biden expected to sign an executive order

Democrats were roundly united against former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. But as the situation at the border has worsened under President Joe Biden, many Democrats have come to embrace some of the very policies they once opposed.

The scenes are a daily reminder that San Diego became the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in April, according to U.S. figures, the fifth region to hold that distinction in two years in a sign of how quickly migration routes are changing.

The Biden administration plans to announce a new rule Thursday that would tighten up the screening process for asylum seekers at the border.

According to a Time cover story based on two interviews with the former president and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisors, if re-elected, one of Trump’s key concerns is immigration and the southern border.

Five Democratic House lawmakers on Wednesday urged President Biden to reinstate Trump-era immigration policies to “bring order to the Southern border.”

In recent months, Biden, as good a political observer as any, has shifted rightward on immigration. He promised to shut down the border if given the power to by Congress, only for Senate Republicans to tank the deal their own negotiators fought for.

A newly implemented Biden administration policy is significantly reducing the number of migrants at the southern border who can successfully seek asylum, a Department of Homeland Security official said in a recent court filing.

An asylum seeker is someone who has fled their home in search of safety and protection in another country. Because they cannot obtain protection in their home country, they seek it elsewhere. Asylum seekers may be of any age, gender, socio-economic status or nationality—though the majority come from regions of the world that are suffering from conflict, disaster and weak rule of law.

The Biden administration has proposed a rule that could limit asylum-seekers at the southern border. The rule is intended to discourage dangerous migrant treks and illegal border crossings.

The number of people who are apprehended by US Border Patrol agents or voluntarily surrender to them at or near the border with Mexico has skyrocketed recently, setting records in each of the past three fiscal years — and exceeding last year’s numbers in each of the first four months of the fiscal year that started in October.

More people crossed the U.S.-México border in 2023 than in any other year on record.

The mass influx of asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border has significantly strained US immigration resources.

That’s led Biden to dramatically change the way he talks about the situation at the border, shifting away from the more liberal immigration positions he espoused as a presidential contender and returning to more centrist views he held as a senator and vice president

Despite some successes in changing policies, Mr Biden's wider efforts to reform the country's immigration system have stalled, crushed under the weight of record-breaking numbers of migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.

The Biden administration is considering taking unilateral action without Congress to make it harder for migrants to pass the initial screening for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and quickly deport recently arrived migrants who don’t meet the criteria, say three U.S. officials with knowledge of the deliberations.

A recent decline in arrests for illegal crossings on the U.S. border with Mexico may prove only temporary. The drop in January reflects how the numbers ebb and flow, and the reason usually goes beyond any single factor.