IMMIGRATION: “The Trump administration quietly made it more difficult for immigrants to seek asylum in the US last month, the latest in a series of steps designed to deliver on the President’s campaign promise to harshly enforce immigration laws.
Supporters of President Donald Trump’s policies say the move cuts off an incentive for migrants to make their way to the US, where they are granted the chance to pursue asylum claims and sometimes build underground lives illegally.
But advocates for immigrants say the changes could block people fleeing genuinely violent situations — especially vulnerable women and children — from getting protections or even adequately having their cases heard.
The move came without the fanfare of Trump’s executive orders and implementation guidance, tucked away in arcane guidance for asylum officers distributed by US Citizenship and Immigration Services to officers and immigration lawyers…
The changes came in an updated lesson plan for asylum officers distributed by USCIS Asylum Division Chief John Lafferty on February 13. They went into effect February 27.”
–Tal Kopan, “Trump admin quietly made asylum more difficult in the US,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, March 8, 2017