US decides to deny asylum to those arriving illegally
The Trump administration has introduced new measures to deny asylum to immigrants entering illegally, saying the nation “is experiencing an unprecedented crisis on our southern border”, referring to a large group from Central American countries marching towards the US.
The administration has cited national security concerns as the reason for the measure, same as for Trump’s “travel ban” that was partially allowed by the Supreme Court in 2017 after long-drawn legal challenges in lower courts. Experts expect the new asylum measures to be challenged too.
“Aliens who enter the US unlawfully through the southern border in contravention of this proclamation will be ineligible to be granted asylum,” President Donald Trump said in a proclamation on Friday. The new regulations were issued on Thursday.
Under the new measure, only immigrants coming into the US through legal ports of entry will be processed for asylum. Those denied will not be turned away but will be eligible for processing under “withholding of removal”, and subject to stricter screening.
An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are marching in caravans towards the southwest border of the US to seek asylum. Trump has called it an “invasion” and sent troops to the border. He also railed against them during the mid-term elections, stoking fears of illegal immigrants among his base.
“Our asylum system is overwhelmed with too many meritless asylum claims from aliens who place a tremendous burden on our resources, preventing us from being able to expeditiously grant asylum to those who truly deserve it,” DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker said in a statement. “Today, we are using the authority granted to us by Congress to bar aliens who violate a presidential suspension of entry or other restriction from asylum eligibility.”
Critics of the order have called it illegal. “US law allows individuals to apply for asylum whether or not they are at a port of entry,” Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said. “It is illegal to circumvent that by agency or presidential decree.”