By Maryam Saleh
President Donald Trump’s new
offer to open the federal government in exchange for funding for his
wall on the southern U.S. border includes a major change to immigration
policy that was not included as part of his public announcement.
The Trump administration had claimed
that it would support legislation known as the BRIDGE Act — which
includes protections for Dreamers — in exchange for concessions by
Democrats. Upon closer investigation, that turned out to be a lie.
Trump’s offer to Democrats, revealed
Monday night, actually gives him even more of what he has wanted in
immigration policy, which is an end to the legal process that allows
people to present themselves at a U.S. port of entry and apply for
asylum. Trump’s new policy would ban such asylum-seeking for Central
American minors and require those fleeing violence or persecution to
apply in their own country instead.
The Trump administration, however, has also made that process effectively impossible. The appropriations bill
that’s currently on the negotiating table creates the “Central American
Minors Protection Act,” which would allow minors from El Salvador,
Guatemala, and Honduras with a “qualified parent or guardian” in the
United States to apply for asylum in their home countries. (The bill
does not define “qualified” parent, and it’s unclear whether the program
would be limited to the children of U.S. citizens and permanent
residents.) But far from treating would-be asylum-seekers’ claims with
urgency, the bill gives 240 days (about eight months) for the
establishment of eight processing centers that would deal with these
claims — even though the ban on requesting asylum at the border would go
into effect immediately.
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Source: The Intercept_
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