Government

U.S. Escalates War Against Asylum Seekers With Latest Circumvention Of International Law

Trump continues to turn America into a rogue state.

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Donald Trump is trying to change the U.S. asylum laws, via executive action, in contravention of U.S. law, again. Again, Trump perceives that mistreatment of asylum seekers, in contravention of established principles of international law, will play well with his white supremacist base and the majority of white people who voted for him. Again, he’s probably not wrong.

The proposed change affects whether asylum seekers can even seek asylum. The new rule states that people who reach America cannot seek asylum if they passed through another country and did not seek asylum there first. Here are some of Trump’s evil henchmen explaining the anti-immigrant policy, on NBC News:

“Until Congress can act, this interim rule will help reduce a major ‘pull’ factor driving irregular migration to the United States and enable DHS and DOJ to more quickly and efficiently process cases originating from the southern border, leading to fewer individuals transiting through Mexico on a dangerous journey,” Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan said in the statement.

Attorney General William Barr called the interim final rule a “lawful exercise of authority provided by Congress to restrict eligibility for asylum.”

As with this racist administration’s other attempts to change asylum rules, this new gambit is illegal under U.S. law. We’re not talking about a norm, or a practice — there is actual statutory language here that makes Trump’s move illegal on its face:

8 U.S. Code § 1158 – Asylum

(a) Authority to apply for asylum
(1) In general
Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title.

(2) Exceptions
(A) Safe third country
Paragraph (1) shall not apply to an alien if the Attorney General determines that the alien may be removed, pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement, to a country (other than the country of the alien’s nationality or, in the case of an alien having no nationality, the country of the alien’s last habitual residence) in which the alien’s life or freedom would not be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, and where the alien would have access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum or equivalent temporary protection, unless the Attorney General finds that it is in the public interest for the alien to receive asylum in the United States.

That language does not authorize the Attorney General to deny asylum seekers; it authorizes him to remove them, on a case-by-base basis, only after determining that there is some third country that could hear the asylum-seeker’s claim without prejudice. The proposal here contemplates using that exceptional authority indiscriminately towards all asylum seekers without any notice about whether the pass-through countries are willing and capable of providing a fair, non-prejudicial adjudication of an asylum-seeker’s claims.

If laws are not your thing, we also have international practices that tell us Trump’s asylum proposal violates human rights conventions. From the International Justice Research Center:

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The basic principle of refugee law, non-refoulement refers to the obligation of States not to refoule, or return, a refugee to “the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, art. 33(1). Non-refoulement is universally acknowledged as a human right.

Trump refuses to accord asylum seekers with the basic rights given to them by U.S. law and international conventions. His actions are consistent with a rogue state warlord, and not “the leader of the free world.” Yet white-wing Republicans continue to support these policies.

I wonder why.

Trump administration moves to end asylum protections for most Central American migrants [NBC News]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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