Trump considering plan that could block asylum for thousands of Central American migrants: report

[highplainsdem]

Last edited Thu May 30, 2019, 03:14 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Hill

President Trump is reportedly considering an immigration plan that could block thousands of Central American migrants seeking asylum from entering the U.S. at the southern border.

Administration officials and advocates briefed on the plan told Politico the draft proposal, which is circulating among Trump’s Homeland Security advisers, would bar migrants from seeking asylum if they had passed through a nation other than their home country before arriving to the U.S. The plan would make thousands of Central American migrants at the border who have trekked through Mexico ineligible for asylum.

Trump appeared to allude to the plan Thursday morning when he was departing the White House, saying he was “going to do something very dramatic on the border.”

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“This is a big league statement,” Trump said. “I'm not closing the border, I'm doing something else.”

-snip-

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/446160-trump-considering-plan-that-could-block-asylum-for-thousands-of

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Too cute by half. The courts aren't going to go along with this silliness.


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Editing later after checking the Politico article this article at The Hill was based on, and after checking US asylum law.


According to Politico

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/30/asylum-restrictions-trump-central-america-1489012

U.S. law allows refugees to request asylum when they arrive on U.S. soil but has long included an exemption for those who have already emigrated to a safe country.

That's apparently the exemption the Trump admin thinks it can exploit.

But people passing through Mexico en route to the US haven't "already emigrated" there.

Or even "firmly resettled," which is the wording used by that US law:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1158

(2) Exceptions
(A) In generalParagraph (1) shall not apply to an alien if the Attorney General determines that—

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(vi) the alien was firmly resettled in another country prior to arriving in the United States.

[Eugene]

1. If applied to its literal limit, that could be used to exclude almost everybody.

[The Mouth]

2. Pretty much only those wealthy

enough to arrive by ship or plane.

[RedParrot]

3. Trump only wants Norwegians

Norwegians want no part of Trump's America.

Anyone remembers the film Gangs of New York? In that film the "unwashed masses" were Irish immigrants. Trump would have loved the character played by Daniel Day Lewis.

[highplainsdem]

4. I've edited the OP to explain how the Trump admin thinks it can twist the law to get away

with this, and why that won't work.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

5. A president whose wife was born in a foreign country can no longer serve.

Actually, wives. Ivana was born in Czechoslovakia. There are just some jobs Americans won't do...