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\u201cPromise broken,\u201d Juli\u00e1n Castro,<\/strong> a veteran of the Barack Obama<\/strong> administration, tweeted<\/a> this week, blasting Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s latest move on immigration. On Thursday the policy widely known as Title 42<\/a>, which allowed American officials to keep out asylum-seekers for public health reasons, will expire. In its place, the Biden administration has announced a new set of sweeping immigration constraints in the hopes of curbing an influx of migrants at the US-Mexico border. Going forward, all migrants will be denied entry into the US unless they have sought asylum in a transit country or submitted<\/a> an online application for protection in the US before arriving at the border. Anyone who doesn\u2019t meet those qualifications but cross anyway will be barred from reentry for at least five years. If the policy\u2014Title 8\u2014sounds familiar, that\u2019s because it\u2019s not new: Trump implemented a very similar rule when he was president, and immigration advocates are furious.<\/p>\n Castro was quick to point out the hypocrisy: During his 2020 presidential campaign Biden accused Trump of becoming “the first president\u2026[to say that] anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWith his new asylum rule, Biden became the second president,\u201d Castro wrote. Immigration rights groups have attacked this proposal from the beginning, saying the administration is following in the footsteps<\/a> of Trump\u2019s notorious anti-immigration adviser Stephen Miller.<\/strong> Advocates are also expected to challenge the latest policy in court, per The New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> Biden\u2019s administration pushed back on the Trump comparisons earlier this year. \u201cThis is not a Trump-era policy,\u201d Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas<\/strong> said<\/a> on MSNBC in late January. \u201cThis is not a transit ban. We have provided a lawful path for individuals to try and seek entry.\u201d But it didn\u2019t help that conservative lawmaker Jim Jordan,<\/strong> who has long staked out an anti-immigration agenda, told NBC News the Title 8 policy was \u201cgood<\/a>\u201d back in February (details of the policy were first proposed<\/a> in January).<\/p>\n But it appears the administration is now fighting against a different narrative\u2014one Republicans like Jordan are pushing\u2014that the end of Title 42 will amount to open borders. \u201cLet me be clear, the lifting of the Title 42 public health order does not mean our border is open. In fact, it is the contrary,\u201d Mayorkas said<\/a> on Wednesday, before noting the five-year reentry ban. \u201c[Title 8] means tougher consequences for people who cross the border illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the quick summary expulsions leveled under Title 42, detailed records<\/a> will now be kept on those who are caught crossing the border and those being screened for asylum claims. To manage this changeover, Biden has dispatched<\/a> about 550 active-duty troops so far to the border for a 90-day deployment that will involve \u201cground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support,\u201d according to an official who spoke to CNN<\/a>. An additional<\/a> 1,400-plus DHS employees, roughly 1,000 asylum officers, and 1,500 Department of Defense personnel have also been sent to the border. Moreover, the administration is working to set up scores of new processing centers<\/a> in Latin America to manage the president\u2019s goal of accepting up to 30,000<\/a> qualified asylum-seekers every month.\u00a0(Since Title 42\u2019s activation in March 2020, migrants have been denied<\/a> a chance to seek asylum nearly 3 million times.)<\/p>\n The administration\u2019s post\u2013Title 42 plans have faced a barrage of questions from Democrats of various stripes\u2014some who feel the president is adopting Trump\u2019s harsh approach to immigration and others who claim the administration is not doing enough to support border states.<\/p>\n Representative Ruben Gallego,<\/strong> an Arizona Democrat, has warned the administration that border communities in his state \u201care simply unequipped\u201d to handle a migrant influx. \u201cIt is imperative the Biden administration work directly, in real-time, with these communities to support them in every way they need,\u201d Gallego said<\/a> last week. \u201cWe need the Biden administration to act, and to act fast.\u201d A similar message was shared<\/a> by Katie Hobbs,<\/strong> Arizona\u2019s Democratic governor. \u201cWe have not received an adequate response [from the Biden administration],\u201d Hobbs said on Monday. \u201cWe will continue to relentlessly pressure the federal government until we truly get the resources we need to manage the expected influx.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n