Biden's asylum curbs turning back migrants with legitimate claims

In the months since US President Joe Biden imposed sweeping restrictions on asylum at the US-Mexico border, the policy appears to be working exactly as he had hoped and his critics had feared.

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The number of people asking for haven in the United States has dropped by 50 per cent since June, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Border agents are operating more efficiently, administration officials say, and many of the hot spots along the border have calmed.

But migrant activists say Mr Biden's executive order is weeding out far too many people. 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.