Trump to stop migrants claiming asylum after crossing Mexico in major border crackdown

Administration move to curtail asylum sets stage for exhaustive legal battles

Donald Trump’s administration has taken steps to officially end asylum protections for Central American migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.

The US Justice Department published a new rule in the Federal Register on Monday that would make migrants passing through another country before arriving in the country initially ineligible for asylum.

The rule appeared set to provoke an extensive legal battle between the Trump administration and immigrant rights groups.

The rule, expected to go into effect on Tuesday, also applies to children who have crossed the border alone.

There are some exceptions: If someone has been trafficked, if the country the migrant passed through did not sign one of the major international treaties that govern how refugees are managed, or if an asylum-seeker sought protection in a country but was denied.

US law allows refugees to request asylum when they arrive at the country’s borders regardless of how they did so, but there is an exception for those who have come through a country considered to be “safe”.

But the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs asylum law, is vague on how a country is determined “safe”; it says the determination is made “pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement”.

Right now, the US has such an agreement, known as a “safe third country,” only with Canada.

Under a recent agreement with Mexico, Central American countries were considering a regional compact on the issue, but nothing has been decided.

Guatemalan officials were expected in Washington on Monday, but apparently a meeting between Mr Trump and Jimmy Morales, the president of Guatamala, was cancelled amid a court challenge in Guatemala over whether the country could agree to a safe third country agreement with the US.

The new rule will also apply to the initial asylum screening, known as a “credible fear” interview, at which migrants must prove they have credible fears of returning to their home country. Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are poor countries suffering from violence.

The rule applies to migrants who are arriving to the US, not those who are already in the country.

Officials say the changes are meant to close the gap between the initial asylum screening most people pass and the final decision on asylum most people do not win.

But immigrant rights groups, religious leaders and humanitarian groups, have said the administration’s policies amount to a cruel and calloused effort to keep immigrants out of the country.

Along with the administration’s recent effort to send asylum seekers back over the border, Mr Trump has tried to deny asylum to anyone crossing the border illegally and restrict who can claim asylum, and Attorney General William Barr recently tried to keep thousands of asylum seekers detained while their cases play out.

Nearly all of those efforts have been blocked by courts.

Meanwhile, conditions have worsened for migrants who make it over the border seeking better lives.

Tens of thousands of Central American migrant families cross the border each month, many claiming asylum.

The numbers have increased despite Mr Trump’s derisive rhetoric and hard-line immigration policies.

Border facilities have been dangerously cramped and crowded well beyond capacity. The Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog found fetid, filthy conditions for many children and politicians who travelled there recently decried the conditions.

Additional reporting by AP