By The Jersey Journal | NJ.com |
Following President Donald Trump’s reversal on his administration’s immigration policy last week, Trump this week has made it clear that he wants asylum seekers to be turned away at the borders.
Trump signed an executive order on June 20 ending the “zero tolerance” policy that separates families at the border.
The policy has resulted in more than 2,300 family separations, and has faced heavy criticism from migrant advocates, Democrats, and, increasingly, some Republicans.
But just four days later, he tweeted that, “When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no judges or court cases, bring them back from where they came.” He followed up on Monday with another tweet, saying, “People must simply be stopped at the border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally.”
Prior to his executive order, there had been reports that some asylum seekers who arrived at the U.S. through the proper ports of entry were facing delays and in some cases, being turned away entirely.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week claimed asylum seekers “can go to our ports of entry, if they want to claim asylum. And they won’t be arrested.”
But migrant advocates say that is not the case.
“We have seen an active effort to deter asylum seekers legally crossing the border to get to the inspection where they can actually petition for asylum or refugee status,” said Fernando Garcia, the executive director and founder of the Border Network for Human Rights.
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