Trump's asylum rules will make a bad situation worse

They're an imprecise tool that will punish people fleeing legitimate persecution

An American flag.
(Image credit: Illustrated | DickDuerrstein/iStock, RSfotography/iStock, syntika/iStock)

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."

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Bonnie Kristian

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.