The images were heartbreaking and brutal.

At least three dozen migrants have died in a fire at an immigration detention center in northern Mexico near the U.S. border.

Images from the scene show ambulances, firefighters...

The tragedy comes as Mexican border towns have seen a dramatic increase in non-Mexican refugees trying to come into the United States.

And as the Biden administration has been trying to address that influx.

Today, my administration is taking several steps to stiffen enforcement for those who try to come without a legal right to stay.

Earlier this year, President Biden announced a new policy for those trying to enter the U.S.

This new process is orderly, it's safe, and it's humane, and it works.

If implemented next month, the rule changes would make it a lot harder for people to claim asylum.

If their applications is denied or if they attempt to cross into the United States unlawfully,

they'll be returned back to Mexico and will not be eligible.

His administration hopes that this policy will cut down on the number of people trying to illegally enter the country, but critics say that

Biden's plan is simply dusting off and expanding policies that President Trump put into place

and that Biden once decried as racist.

I'm Gustavo Ariano. You're listening to The Times, Essential News, from the LA Times.

It's Wednesday, April 5, 2023.

Today, what's behind the new asylum policy from the White House

and why it probably won't stop people from trying to come into this country?

Thank you. people from trying to come into this country. Here to talk to me about all this are my L.A. Times colleagues, immigration reporters Andrea

Castillo and Hamid and Hamid, welcome to the Times.

Thank you.

Thanks, Gustavo.

...