On February 23, the Biden administration published a “notice of proposed rulemaking” to refuse asylum to migrants who did not first seek protection in the countries they traveled through to reach the US southern border. The change effectively resurrects Donald Trump’s asylum ban, rendering nearly all applicants ineligible for protections.

Even with the low bar for reform set by the Biden White House, the announcement is a betrayal. It’s a cruel, needless decision that will cause harm and suffering to thousands or perhaps millions of people seeking survival in the United States. The United States received over 202,000 asylum affirmative applications in 2022 alone, plus another 68,300 defensive claims from migrants in deportation proceedings.

Biden’s asylum ban appears to be another instance of the Democrats’ cherished strategy of losing to the Republicans by implementing slightly weaker versions of the latter’s policies. But the bipartisan war on migrants points to a more profound crisis, indicating the destabilization of the conditions that, for decades, have structured the uneven movement of capital and labor across the US border.