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Vice President Mike Pence said that, in addition to ensuring that border officials have the necessary resources, Congress must "eliminate the loopholes" that allow refugee families to settle here. .
AP

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump proposes to make asylum seekers pay fees to process their claims while he continues to seek to quell the influx of Central American migrants seeking to enter the United States.

In a presidential memorandum signed on Monday, Trump ordered his Attorney General and the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security to take further steps to reform the asylum system. According to him, "he is in crisis" and prey to "endemic abuses".

These changes are only the latest in a series of proposals from an administration that is struggling to cope with the influx of migrant families arriving at the southern border that has overwhelmed federal resources and complicated Trump's efforts to win the victory at the border. -election. Most of those arriving say they are escaping violence and poverty, and many are seeking asylum under US law and international law.

As part of the memo, Trump provides public servants 90 days to develop new regulations to ensure claims are processed within 180 days of filing, except in exceptional circumstances.

And he is asking officials to start charging fees to process asylum and employment authorization applications, which currently do not require payment.

White House and Homeland Security officials did not immediately answer questions about the amount of applicants who would be forced to pay, and it is unclear how many families fleeing poverty could afford such payment.

The note indicates that the price would not exceed the cost of processing claims, but officials did not immediately provide an estimate of what this might be.

Trump also wants to ban anyone who has entered or attempted to illegally enter the country from receiving a temporary work permit and calls on the authorities to immediately revoke work permits when people are denied asylum and are expelled from the country.

The Republican President also calls on Homeland Security to reassign immigration officers and other personnel "to improve the integrity of the decisions made on credible and reasonable appeals of fear, to strengthen the enforcement of immigration laws and to ensure compliance with the law by those foreigners who have final orders to move. "

Arrests along the southern border have exploded in recent months. Border officials made more than 100,000 arrests or entry bans in March, their highest level in 12 years.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in early April, as Trump was increasingly frustrated by the number of families from Central America crossing the US-Mexico border.

The Associated Press writer, Colleen Long, contributed to this report.

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