Trump administration to sharply tighten US asylum rules

The Trump administration proposes a new regulation that will make seeking asylum in the United States extremely difficult for migrants, according to a draft rule issued by the Homeland Security and Justice departments, writes CNN.

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The 161-page rule, to be published on June 15 in the Federal Register, lists a number of changes that could create even more serious difficulties for people seeking asylum in the United States.

During the presidency of Donald Trump, the administration closed or complicated the process of seeking asylum in the United States. The last proposed rule, which has yet to pass a period of public discussion and does not enter into force immediately, is no exception.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnik, political adviser to the American Immigration Council, criticized the proposal.

“The purpose of this asylum provision is not to improve the system. The goal is to make it impossible to obtain asylum,” he said.

In accordance with one of the proposed changes, an asylum application may be examined more thoroughly if a person has visited at least one country en route to the United States but has not sought asylum there. The Trump administration has applied a similar rule to migrants traveling through Mexico from Latin America, but the latter rule expands the range of people who may be subject to these restrictions (with some exceptions, for example, victims of trafficking).

“The Departments believe that failure to obtain asylum or refugee protection in at least one country through which an alien has passed en route to the United States may reflect an increased likelihood that the alien is misusing the asylum system as a mechanism to enter and remain in the United States.” , rather than seeking protection on legal grounds,” the draft rule states.

The proposed rules state that illegal residence in the United States more than a year before applying for asylum will be considered a “significant adverse factor”, despite current exceptions. Likewise, failure to pay taxes or a criminal conviction (even if it was withdrawn) can be counted against a person’s asylum application.

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Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, said the rule would ultimately make asylum decisions faster and easier, but it would also “further limit the number of people eligible for asylum and similar benefits.”

“Many of these provisions have been in the administration's work for many years,” Pierce added. “Instead of issuing them as separate rules, the administration combined many different provisions into this monster, these Frankenstein rules.”

The draft resolution proposes to amend the definition of “membership in a particular social group”. Changing this definition may exclude the possibility for a large number of people.

Pierce said that for a country that has for decades assessed the right to asylum on a case-by-case basis, this proposed change "goes against everything the asylum system is built on, to draw a red line and say that these types of victims are completely ineligible for refuge."

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The list of changes marks another attempt by the Trump administration to revise the US immigration system. At the Heritage Fund event on June 9, Acting Deputy Chief of National Security Ken Cuccinelli announced that additional changes would be made to the asylum system, but did not provide details.

The administration has already demanded that asylum seekers expect Mexico to advance their American affairs, and has also sent migrants to the countries of the Northern Triangle to seek asylum there.

The immigration system has undergone a number of changes over the past few months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic: immigration hearings have been postponed, refugees have been suspended, and migrants, including children, are largely barred from entering the United States. The proposed rule changes, however, have nothing to do with the coronavirus.

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