YUMA, Ariz. — Migrants who entered the U.S. illegally under moonlit skies and waist-deep cold water Friday were devastated to learn they may be sent back to Mexico under expanded limits on the pursuit of asylum. About 200 migrants who walked in the dark for about an hour to surrender...
Judge Blocks Asylum Screening by Border Protection Agents
SAN DIEGO — A federal judge on Monday blocked U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees from conducting the initial screening for people seeking asylum, dealing a setback to one of the Trump administration’s efforts to rein in asylum. The nationwide injunction will likely have little, if any, immediate impact because...
Asylum Rules Test Trump's Legal Skills to Make New Policy
SAN DIEGO — Critics of the Trump administration's most sweeping set of rules to restrict asylum in the United States sent in a deluge of comments opposing the effort, hoping an old law that serves as a check on presidential power will weaken or even doom it. Opponents submitted nearly...
Trump Administration Proposes Sweeping Asylum Restrictions
SAN DIEGO — The Trump administration on Wednesday proposed sweeping restrictions on asylum, seeking to align a legal framework with the president's efforts to limit immigration to the United States. The moves are only the latest in a series of measures that Trump has taken to limit asylum — this...
Trump Quietly Shuts Down Asylum at US Borders to Fight Virus
SAN DIEGO — A U.S. Border Patrol agent wouldn't let Jackeline Reyes explain why she and her 15-year-old daughter needed asylum, pointing to the coronavirus. That confrontation in Texas came just days after the Trump administration quietly shut down the nation's asylum system for the first time in decades in...
Trump Mulls Sending All Who Cross Border Illegally to Mexico
SAN DIEGO — The Trump administration is considering a plan to turn back all people who cross the border illegally from Mexico, two administration officials said Tuesday, using powers they say the president has during pandemics like the coronavirus outbreak to mount what would be one of the most aggressive...
Appeals Court Sides With Asylum-Seekers on Trump Policy
PHOENIX — A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Thursday that a partial ban on asylum doesn’t apply to anyone who appeared at an official border crossing before the policy was announced last summer. The Trump administration announced in July it would deny asylum to...
Court Temporarily Halts Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy
SAN DIEGO — Dealing a significant blow to a signature Trump administration immigration policy, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that the government can no longer make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through the U.S. immigration courts. The same court, based in San Francisco, decided to...
Report: At Least 138 Sent From US to El Salvador Were Killed
WASHINGTON — At least 138 people deported to El Salvador from the United States in recent years were subsequently killed, Human Rights Watch says in a report that comes as the Trump administration makes it harder for Central Americans to seek refuge here. A majority of the deaths documented by...
AP Exclusive: Border Apprehensions Drop 8 Straight Months
WASHINGTON — The number of border apprehensions has dropped for the eighth straight month, following crackdowns by the Trump administration that include forcing asylum seekers back over the U.S.-Mexico border to wait out their claims, a Homeland Security official said Monday. The official said the number of encounters with border...