Trump's asylum rules will make a bad situation worse
They're an imprecise tool that will punish people fleeing legitimate persecution
America's asylum system is far from perfect. For all President Trump's counterfactual caterwauling about the nature of the crisis at the border and what we should do to fix it, he is not wrong that a problem exists. Why and how that problem ought to be addressed is something reasonable, well-intentioned people can debate.
Much less debatable is the merit of Trump's Monday night directive asking for new asylum rules to be implemented within 90 days. Particularly notable — and appalling — among Trump’s requests were the demands for "a fee for an asylum application," "a fee for an initial application for employment authorization for the period an asylum claim is pending," and a ban on work authorization for migrants who "entered or attempted to enter the United States unlawfully ... before any applicable application for relief or protection from removal has been granted."
It remains to be seen whether these proposals will ever take effect. They may be blocked in court — and so they should. This order does nothing to distinguish between those with and without legitimate asylum claims; makes obtaining asylum substantially harder for legitimate claimants; makes reliance on public assistance programs more likely; and, by forcing desperate, unemployed people to spend money they don't have, could incentivize some of the very behavior Trump says he wants to stop at the border.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The asylum process as it stands is messy in execution but simple enough to describe. Asylum applicants are asked to demonstrate that they have been persecuted or are at risk of persecution in their home countries because of their "race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." Application may be made proactively, within a year of arriving in the U.S. by any means (including illegal entry), or "defensively," as an effort to avoid deportation.
The rationales for this system are easy to grasp, and so is its potential for misuse by those who know they do not meet the requirements but are determined to stay in the United States anyway. Perhaps, like me, you'd respond to that dynamic by making other types of entry easier. Or perhaps you think we should reform the asylum process to make it less attractive to those other migrants. Either way, Trump's fees and work limits program doesn't help.
One critique immigration restrictionists often make is that, in the words of Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), the asylum system is "unfair ... for migrants with real asylum claims." But Trump's order will affect all asylum applicants equally. Those with claims fitting that list of risks for persecution will be required to pay the application and work permit fees right alongside those facing no such dangers.
Illegal entry is no indication of an asylum claim's validity both in practice and under current law, which means some asylum seekers whose claims will ultimately and rightly be approved will be banned from working in the months if not years it takes to adjudicate their cases. (Already, even asylum seekers who made a proactive application after legal entry to the U.S. are arbitrarily prohibited from working for at least 150 days after their application is submitted.)
Thus, though Trump's rules may be intended as a deterrent to illegitimate claims, they are an imprecise tool that will make an already difficult process substantially more arduous for people fleeing true persecution.
First there's the upfront financial expense, and it is plausible that an application fee "not to exceed the costs of adjudicating the application" could be hefty, especially for someone coming from a nation like Honduras, which has a per capita GDP of $5,500 and 20 percent of the population making less than $2 a day. Even if the fee is duly paid, the work ban while the application is reviewed requires asylum seekers who entered the country illegally — as they may have done, understandably, to get around the Trump administration's reported practice of turning them away from legal ports of entry — to rely on others while they wait to learn their fate.
Because not every migrant will be fortunate enough to have family, friends, or a charitable organization to support them during that time, the work ban makes asylum applicants' reliance on public assistance programs more likely. Generally asylum seekers are not eligible for federally funded benefits, but some state-run programs are available, and desperation may motivate fraud. Immigration restrictionists regularly raise the specter of "lazy" immigrants leeching off public programs to which they do not contribute via income taxes — so why throw up a new barrier to honest work?
Some asylum seekers, kept from working by the 150-day rule, have become homeless because they had no way to support themselves. Trump's new regulations would make that and other undesirable outcomes, including drug trafficking and prostitution, more likely. Trump uses the drug and sex trades as fallacious arguments for border wall construction, but here he has shifted from advocating something that will not prevent these vices to actively incentivizing them. If licit work is banned, illicit work will begin to appeal. Migrants who might otherwise never consider selling drugs may do so if it appears as the only option to feed themselves and their families.
However our asylum policies ought to change, Trump's order is not the way to go. It is clumsy and callous, rife with predictable unwanted consequences and sure to make a bad situation worse.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
Long summer days in Iceland's highlands
The Week Recommends While many parts of this volcanic island are barren, there is a 'desolate beauty' to be found in every corner
By The Week UK Published
-
The Democrats: time for wholesale reform?
Talking Point In the 'wreckage' of the election, the party must decide how to rebuild
By The Week UK Published
-
5 deliciously funny cartoons about turkeys
Cartoons Artists take on pardons, executions, and more
By The Week US Published
-
US election: who the billionaires are backing
The Explainer More have endorsed Kamala Harris than Donald Trump, but among the 'ultra-rich' the split is more even
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
US election: where things stand with one week to go
The Explainer Harris' lead in the polls has been narrowing in Trump's favour, but her campaign remains 'cautiously optimistic'
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Is Trump okay?
Today's Big Question Former president's mental fitness and alleged cognitive decline firmly back in the spotlight after 'bizarre' town hall event
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
The life and times of Kamala Harris
The Explainer The vice-president is narrowly leading the race to become the next US president. How did she get to where she is now?
By The Week UK Published
-
Will 'weirdly civil' VP debate move dial in US election?
Today's Big Question 'Diametrically opposed' candidates showed 'a lot of commonality' on some issues, but offered competing visions for America's future and democracy
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
1 of 6 'Trump Train' drivers liable in Biden bus blockade
Speed Read Only one of the accused was found liable in the case concerning the deliberate slowing of a 2020 Biden campaign bus
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
How could J.D. Vance impact the special relationship?
Today's Big Question Trump's hawkish pick for VP said UK is the first 'truly Islamist country' with a nuclear weapon
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Biden, Trump urge calm after assassination attempt
Speed Reads A 20-year-old gunman grazed Trump's ear and fatally shot a rally attendee on Saturday
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published