The Trump Administration proposed a new regulation that would virtually eliminate asylum in the United States. Asylum Access submitted a comment opposing this regulation in its entirety. Among other anti-refugee provisions, the regulation would add bars to asylum based on time people seeking asylum spent in a third country on the way to the United States.

Focusing on the experience of refugees in Mexico, the Asylum Access comment explains that refugees frequently need to pass through or spend time in multiple countries without having found a safe place to rebuild their lives. In fact, many refugees who ultimately seek asylum in the United States after spending lengthy periods in Mexico do so because they have come to the conclusion that they will not survive to see legal status and firm resettlement in Mexico — the very opposite of the assumption of firm resettlement encoded in this rule.

Read the entire comment at the link below.