Trump move would cut asylum requests
WASHINGTON — Most migrants who travel by land to enter the United States from the Mexican border will be denied asylum protections according to plans the Trump administration announced Monday. The new rule is expected to be immediately challenged in court.
The rule goes into effect Tuesday. It is one of the broadest attempts by the Trump administration to restrict asylum, and it was announced after the president of Guatemala backed out of a meeting at the White House that had been set for Monday to discuss a similar policy.
Under the plan, migrants who fail to apply for asylum in the first country they pass through on their way to the southwest border of the United States would not be protected. It would significantly affect a majority of asylum-seeking Central American families who are fleeing persecution and poverty who have tried to enter the United States in record numbers this year.
The administration has for weeks been pushing Guatemala’s government to sign a “safe third country” agreement, which would require Hondurans and Salvadorans to apply for asylum in Guatemala instead of applying for protections in the United States.
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said the rule undercuts Congress’ commitment to asylum protections.
“The Trump administration is trying to unilaterally reverse our country’s legal and moral commitment to protect those fleeing danger,” Gelernt said in a statement. “This new rule is patently unlawful and we will sue swiftly.”
The rule would effectively limit asylum protections to Mexicans and those who cross the United States’ southwest border by sea.
Migrants would still be allowed to apply for asylum at the southwest border if they have proof that they applied and were denied the protections in at least one country they traveled through.
Those who can demonstrate they were a “victim of a severe form of trafficking” also will be allowed to apply for asylum, the Department of Homeland Security said.
Attorney General William Barr said the United States is “a generous country but is being completely overwhelmed” by the burdens associated with apprehending and processing hundreds of thousands of migrants at the southern border.
Barr also said the rule is aimed at “economic migrants” and “those who seek to exploit our asylum system to obtain entry to the United States.”
The vast majority of people affected by the rule will be from Central America. But sometimes migrants from Africa, Cuba or Haiti and other countries try to come through the U.s.-mexico border, as well.
Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Monday that his country “does not agree with any measure that limits access to asylum.” Mexico’s asylum system is currently overwhelmed.
Iimmigrant rights groups, religious leaders and humanitarian groups have said the administration’s policies amount to a cruel effort to keep immigrants out of the country. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are poor countries, often wracked by violence.
“This is yet another move to turn refugees with well-founded fears of persecution back to places where their lives are in danger — in fact, the rule would deny asylum to refugees who do not apply for asylum in countries where they are in peril,” said Eleanor Acer of Human Rights First.
U.S. policy for decades has been to allow refugees to request asylum when they arrive at the U.S. regardless of how they arrive or cross. The crucial exception is for those who have come through a country considered to be “safe,” but the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs asylum law, is vague on how a country is determined safe. It says pursuant to a “bilateral or multilateral agreement.”
Right now, the U.S. has such an agreement, known as a “safe third country,” only with Canada.
Along with the administration’s recent effort to send asylum seekers back over the border, Trump has tried to deny asylum to anyone crossing the border illegally and restrict who can claim asylum, and the attorney general recently tried to keep thousands of asylum seekers detained while their cases play out.
Nearly all of those efforts have been blocked by courts.