GOP using asylum to sway elections

WASHINGTON — Republicans are following President Trump’s lead in making migrant asylumseekers the keystone of the GOP message heading into Tuesday’s midterms. Trump’s announcement of forthcoming — if still undefined and legally uncertain — limits on the ability of migrants to seek asylum at the U.S. border comes as GOP lawmakers seek briefings from Homeland Security and State Department officials on the migrant caravan and potential security threats. The statements are the latest efforts to focus voters’ attention squarely on immigration as they head to the polls Tuesday to decide control of the House and Senate. Federal law allows asylum-seekers to make their requests at or near the U.S. border regardless of their method of entry. It also prohibits people making credible claims of asylum from being turned away or prosecuted for illegal entry. Speaking at the White House, Trump proposed to change that by executive order, framing the Central American migrants as a national security threat, and laid the blame at the feet of Democrats for voting “as a bloc” against immigration reform. Earlier this year, an immigration reform bill failed in Congress amid GOP intraparty disagreements over the fate of so-called “dreamers,” border security and a path to citizenship. Still, Trump tagged Democrats with making the asylum process a haven for wrongdoers. “Everybody is abusing it, and just doing things to our system which were unthinkable, I think, even by the Democrats, who are largely responsible for getting it done,” Trump said in an address from the White House. He said an executive order would be coming next week, but offered no details. Meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to State and Homeland Security Department officials seeking information about potential lawlessness associated with the migrants. “It is important that the Committee is briefed on details on the makeup of the caravan including any potential national security threats that reportedly exist among the members,” Grassley said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “Republicans are following their dear leader down the dark path of mendacity, racism and blood-and-soil nationalism,” said Frank Sharry, of the immigration reform group America’s Voice.

GETTY IMAGES RALLYING CRY: President Trump is seeking support ahead of midterm elections Tuesday for his still forthcoming plan that would limit the ability of migrants to seek asylum as thousands of Central Americans make their way toward the U.S. border.