Trump orders crackdown on asylum seekers

The United States embarked yesterday on a policy of automatically rejecting asylum claims of people who cross the Mexican border illegally in a bid to deter Central American migrants and force Mexico to handle them. President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at halting the flow of migrants seeking to cross into the United States without papers, most of them requesting asylum due to violence in their home countries. “The continuing and threatened mass migration of aliens with no basis for admission into the United States through our southern border has precipitated a crisis and undermines the integrity of our borders,” Trump said in the order. Trump used his emergency powers for the order, which critics said violates international law protecting asylum-seekers. “US law specifically allows individuals to apply for asylum whether or not they are at a port of entry. It is illegal to circumvent that by agency or presidential decree,” said Omar Jadwat of the American Civil Liberties Union. But US officials said that as Mexico is the first safe country US-bound migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras arrive in, the asylum claims should be presented there. “Mexico is undoubtedly a safe country for these individuals fleeing persecution,” an administration official told journalists yesterday. “They should be seeking protection in Mexico.” Trump’s order was explicit in wanting Mexico to deal with the problem. It said the automatic denial of asylum claims to illegal border-crossers would continue for 90 days or until there is an agreement which “permits the United States to remove aliens to Mexico.”