Migrants: Trump wants to prevent illegal immigrants from filing asylum claims

Migrants: Trump wants to prevent illegal immigrants from filing asylum claims
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AFP
/ Mark RALSTON

Donald Trump's government has announced that it will ban migrants who have not legally entered the United States from applying for asylum, the latest decision of the president on immigration, which he has made his hobby horse.

In concrete terms, with this new rule, migrants who have not arrived in the United States through an official point of entry at the border with Mexico will not be able to apply for asylum.

"Our asylum system is overwhelmed by too many unjustified asylum claims, which weighs disproportionately on our means, preventing us from quickly granting asylum to those who really deserve," said Thursday the US Department of Homeland Security.

This provision, issued by the ministry, should be signed quickly by the US President while "caravans"” migrants are currently heading to the United States.

It is supposed to relieve an already overloaded system, with some 700,000 cases currently pending in the courts.

In the last five years, the number of people who have applied for asylum has increased by 2,000, according to the Department of Homeland Security, stating that less than 10% of them are finally accepted.

"In accordance with our immigration laws, the president has full authority to suspend or restrict the entry of foreigners into the United States if he considers it to be in the national interest," the statement said.

Donald Trump intends to use the same executive powers that he had argued when he took a highly contested migration decree at the beginning of his term in January 2017, which banned the entry of several majority Muslim country.

In its latest version, validated on June 26 by the Supreme Court after many judicial vicissitudes, this decree closes the US borders to citizens of Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iran, Somalia, but also North Korea and in some cases Venezuela.

Judicial battle in perspective

As with the migration decree, Thursday's decision may trigger a court battle.

The powerful civil liberties organization ACLU immediately reacted to the announcement of the executive. "US law specifically allows individuals to seek asylum, whether or not they have arrived through an entry point," said Omar Jadwat, head of the ACLU, in a statement.

"It is illegal to circumvent this principle," he said.

The New York Immigration Coalition Migrant Advocacy Group has already expressed its willingness to "fight” the new rule, saying that "the government can not abandon its responsibility towards migrants fleeing danger".

Last week, in a statement on immigration, President Trump announced that his government was about to complete a plan to end "rampant abuse"” of the "asylum system".

"Under this plan, illegal aliens will no longer have a laissez-pbader in our country by applying for asylum without justification, and instead, migrants seeking asylum will have to report legally to a point of entry, "he said.

Donald Trump had made immigration his main campaign theme before the midterm elections, regularly denouncing an "invasion".

In his speeches as well as on the social network Twitter, he had multiplied alarmist statements about the progress of thousands of Central American migrants, fleeing violence and misery, and walking on foot in groups in the hope of filing a request for asylum in the United States.

On Wednesday, 5,500 of them arrived in the Mexican capital, intending to continue their journey north.

Some 200 of these Central American migrants went to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Mexico City on Thursday to demand that buses be used to transport migrants to the United States border.

According to them, given the large number of migrants already arriving in Mexico City, at least 150 buses would be needed to transport them to the border.

The US president has announced plans to send up to 15,000 troops to the country's southern border.

According to official figures, more than 400,000 people illegally cross the border between the United States and Mexico each year.

09/11/2018 04:03:31 –
Washington (AFP) –
© 2018 AFP