Opponents sue as asylum rules go into effect

TIJUANA, Mexico — Hundreds of immigrants showed up at border crossings Tuesday in hopes of getting into the U.S. but faced the likelihood of being turned away under a new Trump administration asylum rule that upends long-standing protections for people fleeing violence and oppression in their homelands.

The policy went into effect Tuesday but drew a swift lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.

“This is the Trump administration’s most extreme run at an asylum ban yet,” said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt. “It clearly violates domestic and international law and cannot stand.”

The policy represents the most forceful attempt to date by President Donald Trump to slash the number of people seeking asylum in America. It comes at a time when Trump’s recent tweets telling four members of Congress to “go back” to other countries have set off an uproar.

Trump did not mention the new rules Tuesday during a White House meeting.

Under the rules, migrants who pass through another country on their way to the U.S. will be ineligible for asylum. Most of the immigrants arriving at the border this year pass through Mexico — including Central Americans, Africans, Cubans and Haitians.

That makes it all but impossible for them to get asylum. The rule also applies to children who have crossed the border alone.

At the crossing in Tijuana, 12 people whose numbers were first on a waiting list to enter through a San Diego border crossing were escorted behind a metal gate to a white van that left minutes later to turn them over to U.S. authorities.

Ndifor Gedeon, 27, arrived in Tijuana nearly three months ago with the hope of seeking asylum in the U.S. after being jailed in Cameroon by a government that has been going after the African nation’s English-speaking minority.

He was rethinking those plans after hearing that he may not have a chance at getting asylum because of the new policy and if his case is denied he will be deported straight back to Cameroon.

“I feel sick,” he said of the anxiety consuming him. “If I am sent back to Cameroon, I’d lose my life. The situation is very horrible.”

GREGORY BULL/ASSOCIATED PRESS People wait to apply for asylum in the United States along the border Tuesday in Tijuana, Mexico. Dozens of immigrants lined up at major Mexico border crossings, waiting to learn how the Trump administration’s plans to end most asylum protections would affect their hopes of taking refuge in the United States.