The Trump administration has taken a sledgehammer to the U.S. asylum system from day one, but a new policy change set to be revealed within the next several days may be the most devastating strike yet. “The 161-page rule, which is set to publish in the Federal Register on June 15, lists a series of changes that would pose even greater challenges to people seeking to be granted asylum in the US,” CNN reported.
Immigration policy expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick told CNN the proposed regulation is a brazen attempt to completely rewrite asylum law with changes that could lead to the denial of just about all claims. “The goal of this asylum regulation—far from reshaping the system to improve it—is to make asylum impossible to win,” he said. He laid out several of the proposed changes in a startling and devastating Twitter thread.
“The new asylum regulations would create new grounds for declaring asylum applications ‘frivolous,’ an extreme sanction that can ban someone from any other immigration relief,” he wrote. “These grounds are so vague that they could cause enormous damage.”
“The new asylum regulation would also bans asylum to anyone who has been in the United States for more than a year, with no exceptions, despite Congress CLEARLY providing exceptions to the one-year filing deadline,” he continued. “This would be patently illegal.” In another change, Reichlin-Melnick writes the new regulations “would ban asylum to anyone who fails to file taxes even once or has ever worked off the books.”
Remember how laws are supposed to be passed and changed by Congress? That’s a hilarious concept to this administration, which considers this branch of government a nuisance. “The worst parts of the new asylum regulation are the attempts to totally rewrite asylum law,” Reichlin-Melnick said. “The result? Blocking nearly all Central Americans from asylum.”
Reichlin-Melnick points out at the end of his thread that once the administration’s asylum rule change is published, it must be kept open for public comment. “At that point, we the American people will have 30 days to express our opposition.” We’ll keep you updated when that goes up.
Incapable of running on anything but racism, fears that the administration would escalate anti-immigrant attacks as Election Day approaches are being realized—and they’re doing it as the nation is reeling from the injustice and pain of members of Black communities dying due to police violence.
“The Trump administration is doubling down on a xenophobic, anti-immigrant agenda while the President is fueling violence against Black and Brown people in our country with his racist, white supremacist rhetoric,” Amnesty International said in a statement. “It’s time for policies that embrace the humanity and fundamental human rights of all.”