Illegal aliens who unlawfully cross the U.S. border in between ports of entry will now be ineligible to claim asylum, according to a new rule released by the White House this week.
"Consistent with our immigration laws, the President has the broad authority to suspend or restrict the entry of aliens into the United States if he determines it to be in the national interest to do so," Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a joint statement Thursday.
“Our asylum system is overwhelmed with too many meritless asylum claims from aliens who place a tremendous burden on our resources, preventing us from being able to expeditiously grant asylum to those who truly deserve it. Today, we are using the authority granted to us by Congress to bar aliens who violate a Presidential suspension of entry or other restriction from asylum eligibility.”
The rule doesn’t pertain to those who present themselves at a port of entry along the border and request asylum.
"A senior administration official said the White House hopes that by funneling asylum claimants to ports of entry, officials will be able to assess and adjudicate the claims more rapidly. The official did not say where asylum-seekers would be housed should they arrive at those ports of entry in large numbers," Fox News reported.
Critics of the administration’s immigration policies are pushing back on the measure, saying that U.S. immigration law doesn’t restrict asylum claims to only those who show up to ports of entry.
However, it’s no secret that the asylum process, which is reserved for those who fear persecution in their home country for things like religion, political beliefs or ethnicity, has been increasingly abused in recent years by those who don’t fit the definition of an asylee. Fox News reports asylum claims have spiked 2,000 percent since 2013, most of them stemming from Central American migrants. There are currently more than 800,000 backlogged asylum cases currently hung up in immigration court.