Trump’s Homeland Security chief announces new border crackdown to end ‘catch and release’ by sending all illegals straight back to Mexico – INCLUDING asylum-seekers
DHS says it will begin using its legal authority to send asylum-seekers back to Mexico while they await adjudication of their cases
Previous policy was to release most of them into the interior of the U.S. with a court date that could fall years later
Mexico’s new leaders appear willing to allow the flood of asylum-seekers to remain on their side of the border
DAVID MARTOSKO, U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR
DAILYMAIL.COM
20 December 2018
The Department of Homeland Security on Thursday announced a major change in immigration policy, saying it would send non-Mexican immigrants back south of the border while their asylum requests are processed.
Mexico’s government said that it would accept some of them for humanitarian reasons, in what many will see as a concession to President Donald Trump’s administration.
‘Aliens trying to game the system to get into our country illegally will no longer be able to disappear into the United States, where many skip their court dates,’ Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement.
‘Instead, they will wait for an immigration court decision while they are in Mexico.’
The Immigration and Naturalization Act includes a mechanism to force asylum-seekers to await decisions in Mexico. Using it could prompt new court challenges, however.
A federal judge quickly issued a temporary restraining order last month against the administration’s last attempt to manage a flood of asylum-seekers, ruling that the government can’t automatically deny asylum to people who enter the U.S. between official border crossings.
That order expired on Wednesday.
Separately, a federal judge on Wednesday blocked administration policies that prevented immigrants who suffered gang violence or domestic abuse in their home countries from being considered political refugees who can make asylum claims.
Judge Emmet Sullivan declared that some of the guidance that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued this year cannot be used to determine whether an immigrant has a credible fear of persecution or torture in their home countries, the first step to making an asylum claim in the U.S.
In response to Thursday’s announcement, Mexico’s foreign ministry underscored that it still has the right to admit or reject the entry of foreigners into its own territory.
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