The Trump administration is announcing a new rule this morning that will significantly decrease the burden asylum seekers have on our immigration system. It will require migrants trekking through central America to apply for asylum first in any of the countries they are passing through BEFORE they get to America:
Here’s more:
FOX NEWS – The Trump administration on Monday announced a sweeping new policy tightening restrictions for asylum seekers, in a move that could drastically reduce the number of migrants eligible to enter the United States in this way.
The new rule, published in the Federal Register, would require most migrants entering through America’s southern border to first seek asylum in one of the countries they traversed – whether in Mexico, in Central America, or elsewhere on their journey. In most cases, only if that application is denied would they then be able to seek asylum in the United States.
The latest change is meant to crack down on asylum seekers coming to the U.S. more for economic reasons than to escape persecution in their home countries. The new policy does include a couple other exceptions, mainly for certain victims of human trafficking.
“This Rule is a lawful exercise of authority provided by Congress to restrict eligibility for asylum,” Attorney General Bill Barr said in a statement. “The United States is a generous country but is being completely overwhelmed by the burdens associated with apprehending and processing hundreds of thousands of aliens along the southern border. This Rule will decrease forum shopping by economic migrants and those who seek to exploit our asylum system to obtain entry to the United States—while ensuring that no one is removed from the United States who is more likely than not to be tortured or persecuted on account of a protected ground.”
We first heard about this new rule at the end of May and I’m glad to see the administration is still pursuing it.
Of course you can bet your bottom dollar this much needed regulation will be challenged in the courts by the left and the lower courts will put the kibosh on the law while it gets appealed higher and higher.
But Ken Cuccinelli, who spoke about this on Fox News this morning, said the legal basis for this law is “extremely strong” and he doesn’t believe any challenge to it will succeed.