US President Donald Trump wants migrants to pay to apply for asylum

US President Donald Trump has called for charging migrants fees to apply for asylum. In a memorandum released on Monday afternoon, Trump instructed the attorney general and Homeland Security secretary to come up with regulations that would make several changes in the asylum system, including requiring those submitting asylum applications to pay fees “not to exceed the costs of adjudicating the application”. Trump cited what his administration characterised as a “crisis” at the southwest border as reason for the changes. The number of people caught crossing the border reached its highest count in a decade last month, despite the president’s efforts to end what he has declared a “national emergency”. Border officials have said many of the migrants arriving at the border in recent months have asked for asylum. “The purpose of this memorandum is to strengthen asylum procedures to safeguard our system against rampant abuse of our asylum process,” Trump’s memo says. The announcement came as Trump blasted what he described as “weak, ineffective and dangerous” immigration laws on Twitter. If the Democrats don’t give us the votes to change our weak, ineffective and dangerous Immigration Laws, we must fight hard for these votes in the 2020 Election! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2019 While fees charged by US Citizenship and Immigration Services range from several hundred to more than US$1,000 depending on the type of immigration programme that a person is applying for, asylum applications – generally adjudicated in immigration court rather than by USCIS officials – have not historically required fees. One programme that immigrants can apply for in court, called cancellation of removal, charges US$185, including a biometrics screening. Even a small fee could be insurmountable for many asylum seekers, said Victoria Neilson, a former official at US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the government agency that accepts asylum applications. “The majority of people coming to the United States seeking asylum are coming with little more than the shirts on their back,” she said. According to a 2017 report published by the Library of Congress, most countries do not require asylum seekers to pay fees to request protection. Trump also wants to charge filing fees for asylum seekers who apply for work permits while they wait for their cases to be heard, and he wants to bar those who cross the border illegally from being able to get work permits while their asylum cases are pending. Asylum seekers generally do not receive work permits straight away. They are not eligible to work until six months after they have filed their asylum applications, which generally take several months after they arrive in the US to submit. If they do certain actions that make their cases take longer, like asking for continuances, that also extends the time they have to wait to request work permits. ‘Our country is full’: Donald Trump says migrants are straining US system as he visits border wall While people who have won their asylum cases are eligible for help getting on their feet through programmes similar to refugee resettlement, asylum seekers whose cases are still pending are not eligible for any such aid. Most rely on family or friends to help them until they are allowed to work. The president’s memo also calls for immigration courts to make decisions on asylum applications within six months and for asylum seekers’ hearings to be more limited in scope than general immigration hearings. US law already directs the Justice Department to finish asylum cases within six months, but with a backlog of more than 800,000 cases, asylum claims often take years to come to a conclusion. “The provision to process cases in 180 days has been on the books for over two decades,” said Ashley Tabaddor, president of the immigration judges’ union. “The problem is that we have never been given adequate resources to adjudicate those claims in a timely fashion.” Trump gave the attorney general and Homeland Security secretary 90 days to put together the regulations. Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse

US President Donald Trump wants migrants to pay to apply for asylum

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Number of people caught crossing the border reached its highest level in a decade in March, despite president’s efforts to end a ‘national emergency’

Number of people caught crossing the border reached its highest level in a decade in March, despite president’s efforts to end a ‘national emergency’