This and the previous article are from Truthdig.
Trump Limits Asylum, Says Migrants Must 'Have Merit'
A group of Central American migrants depart their temporary shelter at the
Jesus Martinez stadium in Mexico City. (Rodrigo Abd / AP)
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday invoked extraordinary national
security powers to deny asylum to migrants who enter the country illegally,
tightening the border as caravans of Central Americans slowly approach the
United States.
Trump is using the same powers he used to push through a version of the
travel ban that was upheld by the Supreme Court. The proclamation puts into
place regulations adopted Thursday that circumvent laws stating that anyone
is eligible for asylum no matter how he or she enters the country.
"We need people in our country but they have to come in legally and they
have to have merit," Trump said Friday as he departed for Paris.
Administration officials say the measures, likely to face legal challenges,
go into effect Saturday for at least three months, but could be extended.
They don't affect people who are already in the country.
The changes are meant to funnel asylum seekers through official border
crossings for speedy rulings, officials said, instead of having them try to
circumvent such crossings on the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) border.
But the busy ports of entry already have long lines and waits, forcing
immigration officials to tell some migrants to turn around and come back to
make their claims. Even despite that, illegal crossings are historically
low.
The move was spurred in part by caravans of Central American migrants slowly
moving north on foot but will apply to anyone caught crossing illegally,
officials said. It's unknown whether those in the caravan, many fleeing
violence in their homeland, plan to cross illegally.
"The arrival of large numbers . will contribute to the overloading of our
immigration and asylum system and to the release of thousands . into the
interior of the United States," Trump said in the proclamation, calling it a
crisis.
Administration officials said those denied asylum under the proclamation may
be eligible for similar forms of protection if they fear returning to their
countries, though they would be subject to a tougher threshold. Those forms
of protection include "withholding of removal" - which is similar to asylum,
but doesn't allow for green cards or bringing families - or protection under
the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
Homeland Security officials said they were adding staffing at the border
crossings to manage the expected crush, but it's not clear how migrants,
specifically families, would be held as their cases are adjudicated. Family
detention centers are largely at capacity. Trump has said he wanted to erect
"tent cities," but nothing has been funded or decided.
The U.S. is also working with Mexico to send some migrants back across the
border. Right now, laws allow only Mexican nationals to be swiftly returned
and increasingly those claiming asylum are from Central America, not Mexico.
The announcement was the latest push to enforce Trump's hardline stance on
immigration through regulatory changes and presidential orders, bypassing
Congress which has not passed any immigration law reform. But those efforts
have been largely thwarted by legal challenges and, in the case of family
separations this year, stymied by a global outcry that prompted Trump to
scrap them.
Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants'
Rights Project, said the latest changes were clearly illegal.
"U.S. 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," he said.
Trump who pushed immigration issues hard in the days leading up to Tuesday's
midterm elections, railing against the caravans that are still hundreds of
miles from the border.
He has made little mention of the issue since the election, but has sent
troops to the border in response. As of Thursday, there are more than 5,600
U.S. troops deployed to the border mission, with about 550 actually working
on the border in Texas.
Trump also suggested he'd revoke the right to citizenship for babies born to
non-U.S. citizens on American soil and erect massive "tent cities" to detain
migrants. Those issues were not addressed by the regulations. But Trump
insisted the citizenship issue would be pushed through.
"We're signing it. We're doing it," he said.
The administration has long said immigration officials are drowning in
asylum cases partly because people falsely claim asylum and then live in the
U.S. with work permits.
The asylum section of the Immigration and Nationality Act says a migrant is
allowed to make a claim up to a year after arriving in the U.S., and it
doesn't matter how they arrive - illegally or through a border crossing.
Migrants who cross illegally are generally arrested and often seek asylum or
some other form of protection. Claims have spiked in recent years and the
immigration court backlog has more than doubled to 1.1 million cases in
about two years, Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse reported this week. Generally, only about 20 percent of
applicants are approved.
Trump has long said those seeking asylum should come through legal ports of
entry. But many migrants are unaware of that guidance, and official border
crossings have grown clogged.
Officials have turned away asylum seekers because of overcrowding, telling
them to return later. Backlogs have become especially bad in recent months
at crossings in California, Arizona and Texas, with some people waiting five
weeks to try to claim asylum at San Diego's main crossing.
In 2017, the U.S. fielded more than 330,000 asylum claims, nearly double the
number two years earlier and surpassing Germany as highest in the world.
It's unclear how many people en route to the U.S. will even make it to the
border. Roughly 5,000 migrants - more than 1,700 under the age of 18 -
sheltered in a Mexico City sports complex decided to depart Friday for the
northern city of Tijuana, opting for the longer but likely safer route to
the U.S. border.
Similar caravans have gathered regularly over the years and have generally
dwindled by the time they reach the southern border, particularly to
Tijuana. Most have passed largely unnoticed.
COLLEEN LONG / The Associated Press
#asylum #