Trump Bans Asylum for Unwanted Aliens
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Israel is the only developed nation prohibiting non-Jewish refugees and asylum seekers from entering the country – treating unwanted arrivals oppressively like criminals.
Post-9/11, America is heading in the same direction. Obama was notoriously called the nation’s “deporter-in-chief.”
Trump way exceeds his harshness – militantly hostile to Muslims, Latinos, and other people of color from designated countries – banning their entry to America.
In 2017, his regime arrested and deported more unwanted aliens than Obama in 2016. Last December, acting ICE director Thomas Homan said “(i)f you’re in this country illegally, we’re looking for you and we’re going to look to apprehend you.”
Since Trump took office, hundreds of thousands of unwanted aliens were arrested, harshly detained and deported. His policy is unrelated to protecting national security. It’s all about racial hatred toward unwanted people.
Christians and Jews are welcome, especially from favored nations. Treating them one way, people of color and Muslims another is flagrantly hostile to fundamental rule of law principles.
Refugees, asylum seekers, and others from the wrong countries are unwelcome in Trump’s America. Islamophobia and racial hatred reflect official regime policy.
Trump’s new immigration order has nothing to do with protecting national security or US sovereignty, a shameful White House statement saying the following:
“Illegal aliens will no longer get a free pass into our country by lodging meritless claims in seeking asylum. Instead, migrants seeking asylum will have to present themselves lawfully at a port of entry.”
The statement lied claiming Trump is using his authority “to manage and protect the integrity of our immigration system and our national sovereignty.”
His action is all about denying unwanted refugees and asylum seekers entry to America, violating international and constitutional law under the Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2).
It states all US laws and treaties “shall be the supreme law of the land.” International law is clear and unequivocal.
Article I of the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees calls them:
“A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.”
Post-WW II, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established to help them.
To gain legal protection, they must:
- be outside their country of origin;
- fear persecution;
- be harmed or fear harm by their government or others;
- fear persecution for at least one of the above cited reasons; and
- pose no danger to others.
Immihelp.com calls asylum and refugee status “closely related.” They differ “only in the place where a person asks for asylum status,” adding:
Refugee status is asked for outside countries of origin. “(A)ll people who are granted asylum status must meet the definition of a refugee.”
“The Refugee Act of 1980 regulates US asylum policy as well as governing refugee procedures.”
“The Act for the first time established a statutory basis for granting asylum in the United States consistent with the 1967 United Nations Protocol on Refugees.”
The 1951 UN Convention on Refugees restricted their status to circumstances occurring before January 1, 1951, notably relating to European ones.
The 1967 protocol removed the temporal and geographic restrictions. Trump’s new order is all about blocking thousands of Central Americans heading for the southern US border.
They’re legitimate refugees and asylum seekers, fleeing repressive US-supported regimes in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, three of the world’s most violent nations.
Days earlier, Trump lied saying caravans heading for the US are “made up of some very bad thugs and gang members.” They’re ordinary people fleeing persecution, seeking safe haven from violence and repression in their home countries.
An ACLU statement said “(w)hen the government has the power to deny legal rights and due process to one vulnerable group, everyone’s rights are at risk.”
Trump’s new order flies in the face of international and constitutional law. It’s sure to challenged in federal courts.
With legal help, anyone denied asylum or refugee status can apply for “withholding of removal,” limited asylum while contesting Trump’s order.
According to ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project director Omar Jadwat, “Congress very specifically said you can apply for asylum if you arrive in the United States regardless of whether you’re at a port of entry.”
“(A)nyone who reaches the United States” can apply for asylum. It’s the law of the land and international law.
Presidents have no legal authority to flout it, what Trump’s immigration order intends.
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
