Trump restricts asylum further
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has issued new rules to further restrict the asylum claims overwhelming the nation's immigration system, even as the White House prepares a request to seek more money from Congress for stiffer enforcement and faster processing of migrants.
The Homeland Security Department, which enforces immigration law and has an overall budget of about $50 billion, will run out of money before the fiscal year ends in September because of increased demands from a surge of migrants on the southern border, according to the acting secretary, Kevin McAleenan.
Despite Trump's efforts to crack down, asylum claims and overall immigration have increased steadily in recent months, chiefly from families fleeing persecution, violence and poverty in Central America. More than 90,000 migrants were apprehended last month alone, the highest monthly tally in more than a decade.
“Simply put, the system is full and we are well beyond our capacity,” McAleenan told a House appropriations subcommittee Tuesday.
Immigration advocates and other critics said Trump's new rules, which include making asylum-seekers pay application fees, will exacerbate strains at the border and potentially backfire against White House efforts to reduce immigration.
In a presidential memo released Monday night, Trump instructed McAleenan and Attorney General William P. Barr to take steps to implement the measures within 90 days. The restrictions are likely to face court challenges.
The memo also called for barring work permits to migrants who cross the border between official entry points, and for resolving all asylum cases within 180 days.
The memo does not say how Barr and McAleenan, who recently replaced Kirstjen Nielsen, are supposed to clear asylum cases in six months. Cases now take an average of two years.
The Trump administration has increased, rather than reduced, the court backlog of more than 800,000 cases, including by instructing judges to reopen closed cases.
Although migrants have a legal right to claim asylum, Trump has declared that many of those filing for asylum are faking their claims.
“The biggest loophole drawing illegal aliens to our borders is the use of fraudulent or meritless asylum claims to gain entry into our great country,” Trump said in a statement accompanying the memo.
Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., who chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, said Trump's latest rules will “make matters worse” for migrants.
“Unfortunately, efforts to ensure the safety and civil rights of migrants so far appear to be only an afterthought,” Roybal-Allard said.
Illegal immigration is below levels seen from the 1980s to mid-2000s, but Trump and his aides have been frustrated by the recent influx at the border.
Although the vast majority of asylum-seekers pass an initial interview to determine whether they have “credible fear” of persecution, only about 1 in 5 are ultimately granted permission to stay in the United States - a disparity the administration argues is proof that fraud is rampant.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently announced it would send highly trained teams of investigators to the border to root out what it called “fake families.”
But advocates say it is difficult to win asylum cases. Few migrants have lawyers to help them gather the extensive documentation required and navigate America's complex immigration system. In any case, fraudulent family claims are extremely rare, according to Homeland Security data.
In the last 12 months, agents identified about 3,100 individuals in family units making fraudulent claims. Those include migrants who claimed to be minors but were older than 18, said Brian Hastings, the Border Patrol's chief of law enforcement operations.
The total is roughly 1 percent of all family units apprehended at the border in that period.