Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

US House Passes Stablecoin Legislation, Sending Bill to Trump

4 hours ago

Man Admits to Killing Missing Bass Lake Resident, Madera County Authorities Say

6 hours ago

Trump Diagnosed With Vein Condition Causing Leg Swelling, White House Says

6 hours ago

US Strikes Destroyed Only One of Three Iranian Nuclear Sites, NBC News Reports

9 hours ago

US Seeks One-Day Sentence for Police Officer Convicted in Breonna Taylor Case

10 hours ago

Manhattan Prosecutor Who Handled Epstein Cases Is Fired

11 hours ago

Why California Ag Is at Odds Over Converting Land to Solar Farms

11 hours ago

7.3 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Alaska Coast. No Danger to California

1 day ago
Trump Administration Puts Tough New Asylum Rule Into Effect
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 6 years ago on
September 12, 2019

Share

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — With a go-ahead from the U.S. Supreme Court, the Trump administration Thursday began enforcing a radical new rule that would deny asylum to nearly all migrants arriving at the southern border — a move that spread despair among those fleeing poverty and violence in their homelands.

“Our Supreme Court is sentencing people to death. There are no safeguards, no institutions to stop this cruelty.”Al Otro Lado statement 
A spokeswoman for the Homeland Security agency that manages asylum cases said the policy will be retroactive to July 16, when the rule was announced.
The new policy would deny asylum to anyone at the U.S.-Mexico border who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without first seeking asylum there. Late Wednesday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to enforce it while legal challenges move forward.
Migrants who make their way to the U.S. overland from places like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador would be largely ineligible for asylum, along with people from Africa, Asia and South America who try to get in by way of the U.S.-Mexican border.
“Our Supreme Court is sentencing people to death. There are no safeguards, no institutions to stop this cruelty,” the immigration-assistance group Al Otro Lado said in a statement.
The Mexican government likewise called the high court’s action “astonishing.” The effects of the new policy could fall heavily on Mexico, leaving the country with tens of thousands of poor and desperate migrants with no hope of getting into the U.S.
Acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan called the Supreme Court’s go-ahead a “big victory” in the Trump administration’s attempt to curb the flow of migrants.

‘I Did This so I Didn’t Lose My Life’

In Tijuana, Dunea Romero, a 31-year-old Honduran woman, started to tear up at the thought of not being allowed to take refuge in the U.S. She said she packed a bag and fled her homeland with her two boys, ages 7 and 11, after hearing that her ex-husband, a powerful gang leader, was going to have her killed.
“I did this so I didn’t lose my life,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave my sons without a mother.”
A Nicaraguan who has been waiting in Ciudad Juarez to request asylum in the U.S. could be among those who would be affected. He said he fled his home country after running afoul of the Nicaraguan government with many acts of civil disobedience.
He passed through Honduras on his way to the border, meaning he would have to return to that violence-ridden country under the new rule. He asked that his name not be used because a past news report quoting him led to retaliation against relatives in Nicaragua.
“The president of Nicaragua is friends with the president of Honduras, and what the Honduran president could do is send all of the Nicaraguans back to their country,” he said. “And me, setting foot in Nicaragua again, what could happen to me is I could get locked up, be detained, and processed in Nicaragua for the crimes that they accuse me of — terrorism and high treason against the government of Nicaragua.”
In Tijuana, Ngoh Elliot Takere of Cameroon stood only steps from the U.S. and felt overwhelmed by frustration after learning that he could be blocked from getting in. He has been waiting for two months in Mexico for his number to be called so he can submit a request for asylum in the U.S.
The 28-year-old furniture maker said he left his war-torn African homeland after being jailed by police for being part of the English-speaking minority. He was released on the condition that he leave the country or be killed, he said.

The New Rule on Asylum Represents a Shift in Decades of U.S. Policy

He said the military burned his family’s home, killing his mother.
As for the possibility of being turned away by the United States, Takere said: “I can’t think of that.”

Under the new policy, asylum seekers would fail the test unless they sought asylum in at least one country they traveled through and were denied.
“In the U.S., I know I’ll be protected,” he said.
An estimated 45,000 migrants who have been turned back by the U.S. government and forced to wait out their asylum requests on the Mexican side of the border under yet another new, more stringent Trump administration policy.
The new rule on asylum represents a shift in decades of U.S. policy.
Asylum seekers must pass an initial screening called a “credible fear” interview, a hurdle that a vast majority clear. Under the new policy, they would fail the test unless they sought asylum in at least one country they traveled through and were denied. They would be placed in fast-track deportation proceedings and flown to their home countries at U.S. expense.
Morgan said the Trump administration is “doing everything that they can” to address what he described as the crisis on the border.
Migrants with valid claims “should be seeking help and asylum from the first country they come in contact with,” Morgan said Thursday on Fox News. “They shouldn’t be paying the cartels thousands of dollars and risking their lives to take a 1,000-mile journey across several countries to get help.”

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Stephen Colbert’s Late-Night Show on CBS to End in May 2026

DON'T MISS

Former Los Banos Teacher Indicted on Federal Child Exploitation Charges

DON'T MISS

C for Chaos? Ashjian Kicked Off Measure C Committee

DON'T MISS

Israel Demands UN Scrap Investigation Body for Palestinian Territories

DON'T MISS

Trump Signs Executive Order Creating New Classification of Non-Career Federal Workers

DON'T MISS

Judge Rules Trump’s Firing of FTC Commissioner Was Illegal

DON'T MISS

US House Passes Stablecoin Legislation, Sending Bill to Trump

DON'T MISS

US Health Department Hands Over Medicaid Personal Data to ICE

DON'T MISS

Fresno Grass Fire Near Woodward Park Prompts Brief Evacuations

DON'T MISS

Behind the Masks: Who Are the People Rounding Up Immigrants in California?

UP NEXT

Trump Diagnosed With Vein Condition Causing Leg Swelling, White House Says

UP NEXT

Connie Francis, Whose Ballads Dominated ’60s Pop Music, Dies at 87

UP NEXT

FDA Approves Juul’s Tobacco and Menthol E-Cigarettes

UP NEXT

Israeli Strikes Kill 27 in Gaza, Three Die in Church Late Pope Often Spoke To

UP NEXT

Russia Says Trump’s New Weapons Pledge a Signal for Ukraine to Abandon Peace Efforts

UP NEXT

Israel’s Attacks on Damascus Hinder Chemical Weapons Search, Syrian Official Says

UP NEXT

US Strikes Destroyed Only One of Three Iranian Nuclear Sites, NBC News Reports

UP NEXT

7.3 Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Off Alaska Coast. No Danger to California

UP NEXT

Bahrain to Announce $17 Billion in US Deals During Trump Talks

UP NEXT

Crush at Gaza Aid Site Kills at Least 20, GHF Blames Armed Agitators

Israel Demands UN Scrap Investigation Body for Palestinian Territories

3 hours ago

Trump Signs Executive Order Creating New Classification of Non-Career Federal Workers

3 hours ago

Judge Rules Trump’s Firing of FTC Commissioner Was Illegal

4 hours ago

US House Passes Stablecoin Legislation, Sending Bill to Trump

4 hours ago

US Health Department Hands Over Medicaid Personal Data to ICE

5 hours ago

Fresno Grass Fire Near Woodward Park Prompts Brief Evacuations

5 hours ago

Behind the Masks: Who Are the People Rounding Up Immigrants in California?

5 hours ago

Homeowners With Solar Rise Up to Defang Bill Authored by Former Utility Executive

5 hours ago

Man Admits to Killing Missing Bass Lake Resident, Madera County Authorities Say

6 hours ago

Trump Diagnosed With Vein Condition Causing Leg Swelling, White House Says

6 hours ago

Stephen Colbert’s Late-Night Show on CBS to End in May 2026

LOS ANGELES – “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS will end in May 2026 after the upcoming broadcast season, the ne...

2 hours ago

Stephen Colbert arrives for the Saturday Night Live 50: The Anniversary Special at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, U.S., February 16, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

Stephen Colbert’s Late-Night Show on CBS to End in May 2026

The crest of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is seen at their headquarters in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 10, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File photo
2 hours ago

Former Los Banos Teacher Indicted on Federal Child Exploitation Charges

2 hours ago

C for Chaos? Ashjian Kicked Off Measure C Committee

Flares fired by Israel Defense Forces light the sky above Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. (Reuters/Amir Cohen)
3 hours ago

Israel Demands UN Scrap Investigation Body for Palestinian Territories

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

Trump Signs Executive Order Creating New Classification of Non-Career Federal Workers

Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter testifies on the "Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission" before the U.S. Senate Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security Subcommittee in the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, U.S., November 27, 2018. (Reuters File)
4 hours ago

Judge Rules Trump’s Firing of FTC Commissioner Was Illegal

FILE PHOTO: A view shows the dome of the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
4 hours ago

US House Passes Stablecoin Legislation, Sending Bill to Trump

A view of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 27, 2025. (Reuters File)
5 hours ago

US Health Department Hands Over Medicaid Personal Data to ICE

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend