Little Change at U.S. Border Amid Confusion Over Trump Asylum Rules Facing Lawsuits
Little Change at U.S. Border Amid Confusion Over Trump Asylum Rules Facing Lawsuits
Refusing asylum to most applicants would outstrip available resources; policy targeted by legal challenges
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A man his son from El Salvador waiting for a turn apply for asylum in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Monday. PHOTO: JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ/REUTERS
By Alicia A. Caldwell and
Brent Kendall
Updated July 16, 2019 11:41 pm ET
Facing legal challenges and armed with few details on how the Trump administration planned to carry out its new asylum policy, U.S. immigration agents proceeded as usual on the American side of the border Tuesday.
Civil-rights and immigration groups filed a lawsuit challenging new administration rules that could dramatically limit asylum claims by Central American migrants seeking entry to the U.S.
The suit, filed in a Northern California federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of several groups that assist migrants and refugees, says the new policy is “an unlawful effort to significantly undermine, if not virtually repeal, the U.S. asylum system at the southern border, and cruelly closes our doors to refugees fleeing persecution.”
In addition, two nonprofit groups—Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services—filed a suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeking an injunction against the Trump administration’s new rule.
The Department of Homeland Security hasn’t provided details on how it would change its method of processing the more than 1,000 people who daily cross the border illegally and typically request asylum, according to a person involved in border enforcement.
About two dozen people were allowed to cross into the U.S. and ask for protection at ports of entry in Texas and California on Tuesday, similar to the number in recent days.
The latest policy announcement is playing out much as the Trump administration’s previous immigration changes have unfolded. A rule introduced in December 2018 forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their claims to be adjudicated took months to implement and still applies to only a fraction of those eligible. Last year’s policy of separating families was enforced without a plan to reunite them. It was ultimately blocked by courts and then withdrawn.
The new rules say migrants who pass through another country before reaching the U.S. must seek asylum there first—and be denied protections—before they can be eligible. Because most recent migrants come from Central America and travel through neighboring countries such as Mexico on their journey north, the policy would effectively make them ineligible.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees border security, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Attorney General William Barr have said the new rule is intended to ease the strain on the U.S. asylum system.
The Trump administration hasn’t said what it would do with people who aren’t considered eligible for asylum under the new policy. If they aren’t released in the U.S., they would need to be driven or flown to the first country they crossed into after leaving their homes. In the meantime, they would need to be detained in jail.
Leon Fresco, a former head of the Justice Department’s Office of Immigration Litigation during the Obama administration, said the government doesn’t have the resources to detain most migrants requesting asylum or quickly transport them out of the U.S.
“They do not actually have enough human beings to operate an expedited removal system,” he said.
Courts last year blocked Trump administration rules that would have barred asylum claims by immigrants who cross the southern U.S. border illegally. A divided Supreme Court in December rejected an administration request to reinstate that asylum ban for now.
A federal judge separately blocked the Trump administration in December 2018 from enforcing new rules that made it difficult for immigrants to seek asylum in the U.S. because they were victims of domestic or gang violence.
The new asylum rules won’t impact the U.S. refugee program. Though there are generally limits on the number of refugees that the U.S. accepts from various regions in the world, there are no caps on the number of people from any given country who can request asylum.
Since the start of the government’s fiscal year in October, more than 390,000 migrants traveling as families and more than 63,000 unaccompanied children have crossed the border illegally, most set on asking for asylum in the U.S.
Nearly all of the families caught crossing the border illegally have been released with orders to report back to immigration court at a later date. But those courts are overwhelmed with a backlog of more than 908,000 pending cases. Between Oct. 1 and the end of March, 103,658 asylum cases were filed, according to Justice Department data.
Write to Alicia A. Caldwell at Alicia.Caldwell@wsj.com and Brent Kendall atbrent.kendall@wsj.com
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Appeared in the July 17, 2019, print edition as 'Lawsuits Target New Trump Asylum Limits.'
https://www.wsj.com/articles/civil-r...ms-11563310786
