A Timeline of the Trump Administration’s Efforts to End Asylum
Last updated: August 2019
United States law enshrines the protections of the international Refugee Convention, drafted in the wake of the horrors of World War II. The law provides that any person “physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States … irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum….”1 Since President Trump’s inauguration, the federal government has unleashed relentless attacks on the United States asylum system and those who seek safety on our shores. Internal memos have revealed these efforts to be concerted, organized, and implemented toward the goal of ending asylum in the United States as we know it.2 This timeline highlights the major events comprising the administration’s assault on asylum seekers.
Date and Event Policy Description and Status
July 2019
Asylum Ban 2.03 (barring migrants who cross through another country prior to arriving at the U.S. border from asylum eligibility)
√ The administration published an Interim Final Rule banning all people, including children, who have traveled through another country to reach the United States from applying for asylum.
√ Status: The rule is partially in effect and partially blocked. A federal district court judge in California issued a Temporary Restraining Order on July 16, 2019 in California in East Bay Sanctuary Covenant et al. v Trump, finding the ban to likely violate the asylum provisions of U.S. federal law and raising concerns regarding the administration’s failure to allow for notice-and- comment rulemaking.4 The government appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which kept the injunction in place only with regard to the geographic region covered by the Ninth Circuit (California and Arizona) and allowed the government to implement the rule across the rest of the southern border. On August 26th, the government
petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene and allow implementation of the rule nationwide during the remainder of the litigation. That petition remains pending.5
All undocumented immigrants in the interior become targets for arrests and deportation through new Interim Final Rule expanding procedures that expedite deportation6
√ Pursuant to another major regulatory change implemented as an Interim Final Rule, any undocumented individual who cannot prove to have been continuously present in the U.S. for at least two years can be placed in a fast-track deportation process, without the opportunity to plead their case in front of an immigration judge or get the help of an attorney.7 Expedited removal proceedings do allow individuals to seek referral to an immigration court proceeding to seek asylum, but the program has been consistently criticized for officers’ failure to identify legitimate asylum seekers, resulting in the return of many to harm.8
√ Status: Because of its issuance as an Interim Final Rule, the expansion of expedited removal is already in place. A lawsuit challenging this inhumane rule was filed on August 6, 2019.9
Attorney General Barr certifies yet another case to himself and further diminishes grounds of asylum – Matter of L-E-A-10
√ Attorney General Barr reversed yet another BIA decision, this time strictly limiting asylum eligibility for individuals targeted and harmed due to their family membership.11
√ Status: This ruling effectively limits, or in some cases eliminates, the possibility of even presenting a claim for asylum for individuals who are fleeing harm on the basis of their membership in a particular family.
New pilot program gives border patrol officers the authority to conduct credible fear interviews12
√ Stephen Miller has been promoting the implementation and expansion of a pilot program that would allow CBP officers, rather than trained asylum officer working under USCIS supervision, to conduct credible fear interviews. Requiring asylum seekers, recently arrived and fleeing fresh trauma, to articulate their fear of return to uniformed CBP officers will certainly mean that many asylum seekers will be forcibly returned to harm and death.
√ Status: Unclear when this proposal will be formally implemented. Mark Morgan, Acting Chief of CBP, testified to Congress in July 2019 that CBP officers are currently undergoing training in order to conduct these types of interviews.13
2
The administration √ announces it has reached a deal with Guatemala to
halt the flow of Central American migrants to the U.S.14
In July the U.S. government announced it had reached an agreement with the government of Guatemala. Although the details are uncertain, the administration seems to consider the agreement to set the stage for a “safe third country” agreement that would require all asylum seekers arriving at the southern border who passed through Guatemala, other than Guatemalans, to be transferred to Guatemala to present an asylum claim there. The announcement of the agreement has prompted widespread condemnation in both countries, as it appears to constitute a back-door sealing of the southern border to asylum in the U.S. and would likely prompt an unmitigated political and humanitarian crisis in Guatemala, one of the most dangerous countries in the world.15
√ Status: Unclear whether or when the regulations and agreements necessary to implement the agreement will be finalized.
May 2019
USCIS issues a memo16 √ attempting to undercut protections provided to unaccompanied children during the asylum process
The memo undermines the few but essential protections provided to unaccompanied children in their asylum proceedings, including exemption from the one-year filing deadline and non-adversarial asylum interviews with an asylum officer, by requiring immigration adjudicators to continually re-adjudicate a child’s designation as unaccompanied.17 These new procedures undoubtedly impact children’s ability to effectively access their right to asylum by stripping away protections specifically designed to reflect the vulnerability of children who arrive at a border alone.
√ Status: The memo became effective June 30, 2019. In August 2019, a federal district court issued a Temporary Restraining Order prohibiting USCIS’s implementation of the memo.18
April 2019
The White House releases a memo calling for regulations that would
√ Such regulations would include adding fees to the asylum application and work permit application, precluding asylum seekers from working lawfully during their asylum proceedings, and placing a 180 day limit for cases to be completely adjudicated with an immigration court, among others.20
3
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Read the full document with citations at the above link.
Attacking the most vulnerable.How cowardly and disgusting.
PWS
09-01-19
