The Trump administration is planning to make hundreds of thousands of migrants immediately deportable by dismissing their asylum claims, CNN reported on Wednesday. The move would likely boost already historically high immigration-related arrests to meet the Trump administration's quota of 3,000 immigration arrests per day.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, the administration plans to close the cases of migrants who entered the United States unlawfully and later applied for asylum. Based on self-reporting, at least a quarter of a million asylum seekers in the last decade entered the U.S. unlawfully. Those whose cases are dismissed will be subject to expedited removal, a process that allows immigration authorities to deport an individual without a hearing before an immigration judge.
Asylum is a pathway to citizenship available to migrants considered "refugees" who arrive at the border or have entered the U.S. within one year. To win asylum, a person must provide evidence that they are a refugee, defined as someone unable or unwilling to return to their home country due to past persecution or a well-founded fear of being persecuted "on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion," explains the American Immigration Council. Any individuals "found to pose a danger to the United States, who have committed a 'particularly serious crime,' or who have persecuted others themselves, are barred from asylum."
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