McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas, and seven other Republican colleagues on Thursday proposed a resolution to strike down the Biden administration’s current asylum rules.
The action came after a federal judge in California earlier this week ruled against the new pathways policies and gave the administration until Aug. 1 to revoke the new regulations.
The resolution of disapproval was filed under the Congressional Review Act against the Department of Homeland Security’s current Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule, which allows thousands of migrants to be paroled into the United States from Latin American countries each month, and allows thousands to schedule asylum interviews at U.S. ports of entry via the CBP One app.
Other Republicans also filing the resolution on Thursday included: U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee; Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, both of Alabama; Cynthia Lummis, of Wyoming; Ted Budd, of North Carolina; Steve Daines, of Montana, and Cindy Hyde-Smith, of Mississippi.
Cornyn previously filed a similar resolution of disapproval against the policies in May.
“The Biden administration’s rule is an unserious attempt at resolving the border crisis and is full of loopholes that the cartels will easily exploit to continue moving unlawful migrants into the United States and overwhelm our Border Patrol,” Cornyn said in a statement Thursday.
“Rather than stop unlawful migration, President Biden is using this rule to funnel the migrants into unlawful parole programs, and this resolution would put an end to this shell game to hide an unprecedented level of illegal immigration,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security implemented the new migration policies after Title 42 was lifted on May 11. That public health policy had been in place since March 2020 under the Trump administration and prevented asylum seekers from crossing the border during the coronavirus pandemic to limit spread of the virus.
Under the new policies, up to 30,000 asylum-seekers from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba are legally paroled per month into the United States.
And up to 1,450 appointments for asylum interviews are scheduled per day along the Southwest border at various ports via the CBP One app, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Migrants also are not supposed to illegally cross the border, nor claim asylum in the United States if they crossed into another country and did not try to claim asylum there.
The GOP delegation maintain the parole and asylum interview programs “constitute an abuse of the DHS Secretary’s parole authority, which under our immigration law is only to be used on a true case-by-case basis,” according to a statement from Cornyn’s office.
The Department of Justice plans to appeal the ruling.
Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended the asylum policies, stating after the court’s ruling: “Do not believe the lies of smugglers. Those who fail to use one of the many lawful pathways we have expanded will be presumed ineligible for asylum and, if they do not have a basis to remain, will be subject to prompt removal, a minimum five-year bar on admission, and potential criminal prosecution for unlawful reentry. We encourage migrants to ignore the lies of smugglers and use lawful, safe, and orderly pathways that have been expanded under the Biden administration.”