New Regulation on Asylum Seeks to Erase Our Immigration History and Legacy

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration proposed a new regulation on asylum Wednesday that would eviscerate the United States asylum system. The proposed regulation would make it nearly impossible for most applicants to successfully claim humanitarian protection in the United States.

If implemented, the proposed regulation would impose multiple new bans on asylum, unreasonably raise the bar for asylum screenings at the border, rewrite current asylum law to eliminate multiple grounds under which people are currently granted asylum, and allow immigration judges to effectively deny people their day in court by rejecting applications without a hearing. It would create new grounds for declaring asylum applications “frivolous,” an extreme sanction that can ban someone from any other immigration relief. The regulation would also block virtually all who pass through more than one country on their way to the United States without pursuing relief in those countries, even if it’s on a layover

The proposed regulation, which will be published in the Federal Register on June 15, will be subject to a 30-day comment period that allows the public, policymakers, and advocates to voice concerns about the proposed measures.

The following statement is from Beth Werlin, executive director of the American Immigration Council: 

“The Trump administration’s proposed regulation would represent the end of the asylum system as we know it. It directly conflicts with the immigration statute, upends years of caselaw, and intentionally raises asylum standards to unreachable heights.

“The Immigration Justice Campaign, a joint initiative of the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, witnesses daily how critical asylum protections are for those fleeing persecution from around the world. The Justice Campaign and its many volunteers and partners have seen first-hand the dire need for a robust asylum system, and the grave harm that will befall asylum seekers if this regulation goes into effect.

“The goal of this proposed regulation—far from reshaping the system to improve it—is to make asylum impossible to obtain. Asylum has already been greatly weakened by years of sustained attacks from the Trump administration, and this regulation would be the final blow to our once proud legacy of the United States as a refuge for vulnerable and persecuted populations of the world.”

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For more information, contact:  

Maria Frausto at the American Immigration Council, [email protected] or 202-507-7526.