… migrant activists say Mr. Biden’s executive order is weeding out far too many people, including those who should be allowed to have their cases heard, even under the new rules. They say the figures are so low in part because of a little-noticed clause in the new policy, which changed how migrants are treated when they first arrive at the border.

Under the new rules, border agents are no longer required to ask migrants whether they fear for their lives if they are returned home. Unless the migrants raise such a fear on their own, they are quickly processed for deportation to their home countries.

… “The government knows full well from past practice that the manifestation standard will result in migrants with legitimate asylum claims being denied even a screening for danger,” Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued to block the policy in federal court, said in an email. “Put simply, the manifestation standard will send migrants fleeing for their life back to grave danger, and the government knows it.”

…

… Although the Department of Homeland Security did not give exact figures, the agency said in a court filing last week that asylum requests had dropped more than 50 percent.

The migrant advocacy groups Human Rights First and Kino Border Initiative said that 75 percent of migrants at a shelter in Nogales, Mexico, said they had been turned back after border agents ignored their claims or didn’t give them the chance to raise them.

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