Trump extends order barring asylum

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Thursday evening that extends for 90 days his November order barring migrants who arrive outside points of entry at the U.S. Mexico border from requesting asylum. The courts have blocked implementation of the first order.

In his new proclamation, Trump declared that the U.S. immigration and asylum system remains “in a crisis as a consequence of the mass migration of aliens across the border between the United States and Mexico.”

He also raised the specter, again, of caravans of migrants approaching the border as part of the crisis.

“The problem of large numbers of aliens traveling through Mexico to enter our country unlawfully or without proper documentation has not materially improved, and indeed in several respects has worsened, since November 9, 2018,” Trump wrote. “An average of approximately 2,000 inadmissible aliens continue to enter the United States each day at our southern border. And large, organized groups of aliens continue to travel through Mexico towards the United States with the reported intention to enter the United States unlawfully or without proper documentation.”

Trump first issued an executive order on Nov. 9 that blocked migrants from requesting asylum if they entered the U.S. illegally between ports of entry. Under current law, U.S. authorities must consider asylum requests regardless of how an individual entered the U.S.

Shortly after he issued the asylum ban, a California federal judge blocked the administration from carrying out the order after several civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against it. Then in December, the Supreme Court upheld the federal judge’s decision to block the Trump administration from implementing the new asylum restrictions.