Trump's victory at the Supreme Court is a devastating blow to the American asylum system

The US Supreme Court left Wednesday night uncertainty over the future of the US asylum system by allowing the Trump administration to execute its plan to outlaw most asylum seekers at the southern border while a lawsuit is brought in court.

The judges' decision effectively reinstated a rule of the Trump administration preventing migrants from seeking asylum if they passed through a country other than their own before arriving in the United States. This means that asylum seekers from all countries, with the exception of Mexico, will no longer be able to claim asylum when they arrive at the southern border.

There are limited exceptions to the rule: those who apply for asylum in another country but are rejected may apply to the United States. Victims of human trafficking and migrants who have crossed into countries that are not party to certain international human rights agreements are also exempted. But in most cases, this effectively closes the door to the asylum demand at the southern border.

The Court has not ruled on the legality of the Trump rule, but simply on the fact that the administration has the right to impose it temporarily.

A case concerning the legality of the rule itself is still on its way to the courts and judges should weigh in the long run. But in the meantime, the Trump administration is trying to use it to block most cases of asylum seekers.

The decision outraged the defenders of immigrants: Todd Schulte, chairman of the FWD.us immigrant advocacy group, said in a statement Todd Schulte, "a massive reversal of US leadership to protect the most vulnerable people fleeing extreme violence and persecution worldwide.

The Trump administration is trying to stop an influx of migrants in search of asylum

The rule, published on July 16, is one of many recent measures taken by the Trump administration to limit asylum in the United States. It removes the eligibility of asylum to any foreign national who "enters, tries to enter or arrives in the United States through the southern land border … after passing through at least one country in outside his country of citizenship, nationality or his last habitual residence on the way to the United States ".

The Trump administration has taken several steps to make it more difficult to apply for asylum in the United States.

Migrants in the United States can search the asylum either by introducing themselves to the immigration officers at the points of entry, or by doing so when they were arrested while they were trying to cross the border without permission. Those who come across Canada to the border have been forced since 2002 to seek asylum in Canada under an agreement between Canada and the US government.

But most asylum-seeking migrants in the United States transit through Mexico, from the following countries: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, located in the Northern Triangle, where crime, violence and corruption are rampant and push tens of thousands of people to flee.

President Donald Trump has seen an increasing number of arrests at the border, generally seen as an indirect indicator of the level of unauthorized immigration, as a crisis worthy of declaring a national emergency in February. However, while it qualifies the crisis as a national security crisis, immigrant rights advocates claim that it is rather a humanitarian problem.

To discourage unauthorized immigration, the Trump administration also sends migrants lining up at an entry point or who are arrested as they attempt to cross the southern border to return. in Mexico in order to await a decision on their asylum applications. Under this policy, known as "Staying in Mexico," the United States has returned more than 42,000 migrants to Mexico as of September 1, according to US Customs and Border Protection.

And in July, the administration significantly expanded its power to expel recently arrived migrants without offering them the possibility to pursue their asylum claim before an immigration judge.

The decision of the Supreme Court is likely to aggravate the crisis by pushing more asylum seekers to Mexico, which is unable to offer humanitarian aid. In Mexico, asylum seekers are threatened by abduction and sexual assault, overcrowded shelters and poor job prospects. They have trouble finding lawyers, without whom their asylum cases are almost certainly doomed to failure.

This is only the beginning of the legal battle of the Supreme Court

A federal judge in San Francisco blocked power across the country after the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed the law.

The Supreme Court lifted the blockage Wednesday night, but only restored the rule while the case is on appeal to lower courts and has not yet decided whether it was lawful .

Opponents of the rule argued that it violates the longstanding principles of the 1980 Refugee Act, in which the United States codified its international human rights obligations as a party to the rule of law. United Nations Convention on Refugees, 1951.

The Refugee Act stipulates that any non-citizen citizen in the United States may apply for asylum "at a designated port of arrival" or "regardless of the place of residence". [their immigration] status. The only exceptions are those who have been "firmly resettled" to another country prior to their arrival in the United States or have transited through another country with which the United States has entered into a "safe third country" agreement . A Safe Third Country Agreement is a bilateral treaty under which a country may refuse and return an asylum seeker to another safe country.

At present, the United States has only concluded a safe third country agreement with Canada. The Trump administration is working on negotiating such agreements with the North Triangle countries, as well as with Mexico and Panama, but immigrant rights advocates claim that these countries are far from being able to negotiate with them. be safe for asylum seekers.

Opponents also argue that the Trump administration has also circumvented the regulatory requirements by issuing the rule without public notice and providing the opportunity to comment on it.

Judges can always choose to cancel the rule as illegal. Lee Gelernt, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union who challenges the policy, said Wednesday in a statement that the decision was only a "temporary step." "[W]We hope we will win it at the end of the day, "he said." The lives of thousands of families are at stake. "

In the meantime, however, the Trump administration seems to be moving forward in its plan to expand the policy.

Justice Ministry spokesman Alexei Woltornist said the rule would help "tidy up the crisis at the southern border, fill the gaps in our immigration system, and discourage frivolous initiatives. [asylum] Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the administration would soon publish in a tweet new indications on its implementation.

All possible outcomes for asylum seekers are disastrous

The rule will now come into force across the southern border, affecting tens of thousands of asylum seekers.

More than 73,000 asylum applications during the fiscal year 2016, the most recent year for which statistics are available. This number has probably increased considerably over the last year.

Migrants who have already applied for asylum should not be affected because the rule will not be applied retroactively, said Jorge Luis Vasquez, a lawyer with the Latino Justice Immigrant Advocacy Group. But we do not know immediately how the immigration authorities will treat exactly the asylum seekers who continue to come to the southern border.

Asylum-seekers could be arrested and presented to an immigration judge, which would require proof that they had sought unsuccessful asylum in another country prior to their arrival in the United States. But that could create a huge backlog in immigration courts, as asylum seekers whose applications are denied will be more likely to appeal, Vasquez said.

Alternatively, asylum seekers could be turned back and asked to apply for asylum in Mexico under the "Stay in Mexico" policy.

But Mexico does not have the infrastructure needed to absorb tens of thousands of asylum seekers nor a legally sound asylum procedure. Vasquez said people fleeing persecution in Central America – for example, because of their sexual orientation – would probably not find protection in Mexico. The United States regularly accepts asylum seekers from Mexico, victims of the same types of persecution, he added.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, Policy Analyst for the US Council on Immigration, said this rule would particularly hurt tens of thousands of asylum seekers subject to CBP's practice of "measuring" the points of entry at the border.

Since at least 2016, CBP refuses migrants before they cross the international border between the United States and Mexico if an entry point is able to deal with them, according to the Bureau of the United States. Inspector General of DHS. Many of these migrants wait months for the opportunity to seek asylum at an entry point.

"Because these people have chosen to do what the Trump administration has asked them to do, it will now be forbidden for them to seek asylum," Reichlin-Melnick said.