Senate border bill would upend US asylum at the border with emergency limits and fast-track reviews

By JAVIER ARCIGA AND ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press

JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — A sweeping Senate bill on border security would bring dramatic changes to places like Jacumba Hot Springs, where hundreds of migrants wiggle through a border wall with Mexico every day in boulder-strewn mountains near San Diego to surrender to border agents and seek asylum. The legislation would establish a “border emergency authority” to severely restrict asylum when arrests for illegal crossings hit certain thresholds. Asylum officers would screen applicants within 90 days using a tougher standard. Those who pass would have their cases decided in months instead of years.