The Trump administration will stop accepting asylum applications from migrants who could have claimed asylum in a different country before entering the U.S., it announced on July 15.
The new interim immigration rule upends a 60-year-old policy that protects refugees from war, political persecution and targeted violence. Central Americans – hundreds of thousands of whom cross Mexico each year – will now be barred from applying for asylum when they reach the U.S.
Only refugees who applied for and were denied asylum in a “safe third country” – in practice, Mexico – may then apply to the U.S. for protection.