Asylum
Trump Labels Asylum Seekers as National Security Threat in Expanded Asylum Bar
Even as President Trump downplays the threat of COVID-19, the Trump administration is using the pandemic as a pretext to bar more people from asylum in the United States. While the proposal is being tied to the coronavirus right now, this asylum bar could remain in place long after… Read More
Federal Court Strikes Down Trump’s Asylum Transit Ban in Momentous Victory
On June 30, a federal judge in the District of Columbia struck down the Trump administration’s asylum transit ban, ending a sweeping policy that had shut down asylum for most people entering the United States at the southern border. The court’s decisive action could not have come soon enough,… Read More
DHS Suggests Asylum Seekers Should Get Used to ‘Homelessness’ After Stripping Work Permits
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will finalize a new regulation on June 26 which will strip most asylum seekers of the right to seek work authorization. The rule imposes sweeping new grounds to deny asylum seekers a work permit during the multi-year process of obtaining asylum. DHS dismissed… Read More
What You Need to Know About Trump’s Proposal to Eliminate the US Asylum System
In sweeping new proposed regulations announced on June 11, the Trump administration took the first step toward administering a final blow to the U.S. asylum system. The proposed rules, which impose nearly a dozen new bars to asylum, would rewrite asylum law to exclude nearly all people seeking refuge. Read More
5 Ways Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Agenda Gets in the Way of an Effective Coronavirus Response
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government has implemented sweeping revisions to U.S. immigration policy. Many of the changes fail to prioritize the health of immigrants or the general public. Some functions—like processing visas abroad and asylum claims at the border—have come to a virtual standstill. Yet many… Read More
Trump Is Using the Coronavirus Pandemic as an Excuse to Permanently Close the Borders
The Trump administration has indefinitely extended its ban on immigration at U.S. land borders. The order was also expanded to include immigrants arriving at coastal ports. The ban is based on an order from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), allowing Customs and… Read More
ICE Tells Parents to Separate From Their Children or Risk Indefinite Detention Together
When the Trump administration implemented mass family separation in 2018, the American public was outraged. Two years later, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a different strategy with the risk of a similar result. The agency is now forcing parents at its family detention centers to choose between… Read More
New Data Shows Border Patrol Agents Reject More Asylum Seekers
The Trump administration has used the coronavirus pandemic to justify shutting down the southern border—and much of our asylum system along with it. But long before the pandemic, the administration set up obstacles to asylum. Newly released data shows that one of those obstacles, which made U.S. Border… Read More
How Coronavirus is Changing US Asylum Policy at the Border
The Trump administration detailed its plans to begin rapidly deporting to Mexico people encountered at or near the southern border—without any due process—as the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the globe. The plans were released in a new order issued by… Read More
CBP Hides Itself from Public View and Lacks Accountability
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has historically conducted immigration enforcement along our borders. In this role, the agency has developed a reputation for overuse and abuse of its authority. Government transparency efforts have been critical in uncovering CBP’s misconduct. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits have revealed, for example,… Read More
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