The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have moved to finalize a long‑pending regulation that allows U.S. authorities to treat certain communicable‑disease public health emergencies as a national security ground for denying asylum and withholding of removal. The “Security Bars and Processing” rule, originally issued in December 2020, will now take effect on Dec. 31, 2025, after years of litigation, repeated delays, and overlapping rule changes that had stalled its implementation.
Under the final rule, DHS and DOJ formally confirm that existing statutory “danger to the security of the United States” bars to asylum and withholding of removal encompass specific emergency public health situations arising from communicable diseases. In practice, this means that, during a designated public health emergency, noncitizens whose presence is deemed to implicate those security‑related public health concerns may be found ineligible for both asylum and statutory withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act, as well as for withholding under the regulations implementing the Convention Against Torture.
The agencies stress that they are not creating a new ground of ineligibility but are codifying an interpretation of existing security bars to cover certain communicable‑disease scenarios in which public health is treated as an aspect of national security. The operative public‑health‑related provisions from the 2020 “Security Bars and Processing” final rule remain intact and will now be placed into the Code of Federal Regulations, including 8 CFR 208.13(c)(10), 1208.13(c)(10), 208.16(d)(2), and 1208.16(d)(2).
At the same time, DHS and DOJ are withdrawing a series of “outdated” amendments from the 2020 rule that would have overhauled credible‑fear screening and certain related procedures. Those provisions, the departments say, now conflict with four major intervening rulemakings: the 2022 Asylum Processing interim final rule, the 2023 “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” rule, DHS’s 2024 “Mandatory Bars” rule, and DOJ’s 2024 “EOIR Bars” interim final rule governing immigration judge review of fear determinations.
As of Dec. 29, 2025, amendatory instructions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, and 14 of the original Security Bars rule—targeting provisions in 8 CFR 208.16, 208.30, 235.6, 1003.42, 1208.16, 1208.30, and 1235.6—are formally withdrawn. Officials explain that allowing those instructions to take effect would have re‑inserted provisions tied to now‑rescinded policies, including procedures for a third‑country transit bar that no longer exists, while also creating internal contradictions in the standards and procedures that govern expedited removal and credible‑fear review.
Because the procedural pieces of the 2020 rule are being pulled back, the current credible‑fear framework will continue without major structural changes. Under DHS’s 2024 Mandatory Bars rule, asylum officers may, in their discretion, consider the possible applicability of certain statutory bars—including the security bar clarified in this latest action—during fear screenings, except for the firm‑resettlement bar.
Immigration judges, under DOJ’s 2024 EOIR Bars rule, retain de novo review authority over asylum officers’ negative credible‑fear determinations, including review of any application of mandatory bars. The new action deliberately avoids reinstating earlier requirements that would have made bars‑analysis mandatory in all screenings, changed the screening standards depending on which bar applied, and routed more cases into “asylum‑and‑withholding‑only” proceedings instead of full removal hearings.
The Security Bars rule was first published on Dec. 23, 2020, near the end of the prior Trump administration, as part of a broader effort to link immigration processing more closely to national security and public health concerns. It was due to take effect on Jan. 22, 2021, but its effective date was repeatedly postponed, in part because a federal court in California preliminarily enjoined a related December 2020 “Global Asylum” rule on which the Security Bars regulation heavily relied.
Since then, DHS and DOJ have issued multiple overlapping asylum and border rules that reshaped credible‑fear procedures and asylum eligibility, leading regulators to warn that putting the 2020 text into force as‑is would create “conflicting and confusing” regulations and potentially undermine use of expedited removal. In December 2024, the agencies pushed the effective date back to Dec. 31, 2025, and signaled that they were considering modifications; the current rule, published in the Federal Register on Dec. 30, 2025, is described as a partial withdrawal and correction designed to resolve those conflicts while preserving the core public‑health‑security bar.
The departments note that there is no current public health emergency that would automatically trigger the newly clarified bar, but they argue that finalizing the rule now preserves a tool that can be used quickly if a future communicable‑disease emergency arises. The action also dovetails with the Trump administration’s broader immigration agenda, which has emphasized more aggressive use of statutory bars and security‑framed authorities to limit protection for noncitizens viewed as presenting risks to the United States.
Agency officials present the final rule as both a technical clean‑up of the regulatory text and a policy move to ensure that public health emergencies can be treated as security threats for asylum and withholding purposes, while other recent asylum and border measures continue to govern day‑to‑day screening and processing at the border.
Kishor Panthi
View More PostsKishor Panthi is the founder and editor-in-chief of Khasokhas and NepYork. He is the author of three books, “Kampan,” "UNTRANSLATABLE" and “Zero Mile.” He writes about social issues, immigration, and politics.
