How Trump Changed Asylum Rules in 2018

VOA FILE – U.S. Customs and Border Protection Special Response Team officers stand guard at the San Ysidro Port of Entry after the land border crossing was temporarily closed to traffic from Tijuana, Mexico, Nov. 19, 2018.

(VOA News ) – When U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced a new policy recently to keep asylum-seekers in Mexico while they wait for their cases to be adjudicated, it was the latest in a string of Trump administration policies affecting asylum this past year.

According to requirements laid out by the U.N. Convention on Refugees in 1951 and adopted by the United States, applicants for asylum must meet three requirements: prove they have a “reasonable fear” of persecution in their home country; fear persecution because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social class; and prove their home country’s government is either involved in the persecution or unable to control it.

In 2018, the Trump administration introduced at least seven policies affecting asylum. Immigrant advocates and immigration hardliners say these policies were attempts to deter immigrants from entering the United States.

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