Trump’s Asylum Ban 2.0 Is Broadest Attack Yet on the Asylum Process
From Truthout; some choice bits:
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security unveiled a rule change in how its agencies interpreted “public charge,” the likelihood that an immigrant or would-be immigrant is or will be a “burden” on state finances. Historically, that definition of public charge has been largely limited to reliance on cash welfare; it has never been used to render immigrants ineligible for emergency food or health or housing assistance. Under the new definition, use of any of these additional forms of assistance would also render a person vulnerable to deportation — or, for would-be immigrants, if they were deemed likely to use these forms of assistance in the future, to denial of entry in the first place.
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Last year, the Department of Homeland Security unveiled a rule change in how its agencies interpreted “public charge,” the likelihood that an immigrant or would-be immigrant is or will be a “burden” on state finances. Historically, that definition of public charge has been largely limited to reliance on cash welfare; it has never been used to render immigrants ineligible for emergency food or health or housing assistance. Under the new definition, use of any of these additional forms of assistance would also render a person vulnerable to deportation — or, for would-be immigrants, if they were deemed likely to use these forms of assistance in the future, to denial of entry in the first place.
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The Department of Justice changes, which news agencies began reporting in May, would fast-track deportations resulting from the use of benefits that the DHS public charge rule changes prohibit immigrants from accessing. Since a court ruling in 1948, the government has only deported those who used benefits illicitly, were asked by the government to reimburse it for the used services, and didn’t make the reimbursement. It hasn’t deported people simply for the use of the benefits themselves. The Department of Justice change would override this precedent and push for wholesale deportations.
Meanwhile, HUD’s changes would kick all mixed–status families — families in which some members are undocumented while others are legal immigrants or U.S. citizens — out of public housing. As I have previously discussed in Truthout, by HUD’s own estimates this would result in over 100,000 people, including tens of thousands of U.S. citizen children, being deliberately made homeless, courtesy of the United States government.
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This isn’t random bureaucratic coincidence. There is a vast effort afoot now, one championed by Trump, by his adviser Stephen Miller, and by his national security team, to coordinate across federal agencies, all with the intent of slamming the door on immigrants, and of making the lives of those already in the country more precarious.
It is a truly vile, nativist and, unfortunately, increasingly effective agenda. Step by step, Trump is locking down America, marginalizing and terrorizing immigrant families, and reshaping immigration policy via executive fiat in a way that will impact the country for decades to come. The ACLU and others will almost certainly file for injunctive relief against the latest attempts to limit who can claim asylum, but relying on the courts to block measures like these is not enough. If we are to retain our moral integrity as a country, we must fight this violent, cruel agenda — and all the policies that form its component parts —with all the strength that we possess.