Trump Administration Advances More Measures to Toughen Asylum Process

The Trump Administration on Monday advanced two more regulations that would toughen the United States’ loophole fraught asylum process. The measures appear to target what President Donald Trump described as “rampant abuse” of the asylum system in an April memorandum. In the memo, he ordered federal agencies to propose regulations to add a fee to asylum applications and block asylum seekers who enter illegally from obtaining work authorization before they’ve been granted asylum, among other common-sense immigration reforms.

The first regulation that advanced Monday is a proposed rule that would “promote greater accountability” in the process that allows asylum seekers to request work authorization. The administration’s biannual regulatory agenda provides little detail on the measure, but advocates expect it to cover some of the issues laid out in Trump’s April memo. The White House budget office began a review of that regulation Monday.

The second regulation to advance is a proposed rule that would eliminate a requirement that federal immigration authorities approve or deny work permit applicants from asylum seekers within 30 days. The Department of Homeland Security argued in its regulatory roadmap that removing the 30-day turnaround would allow it “to maintain realistic case processing times” for work permit requests by asylum seekers. The budget office completed its inspection of that measure Monday.

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