Asylum seekers wait for news on the CBP One appointments at El Chaparral crossing port in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on January 21, 2025.
Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images
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Guillermo Arias/AFP via Getty Images
Seeking asylum in the U.S. has been suspended under an executive order President Trump signed this week.
The Republican’s move to suspend asylum indefinitely is unprecedented, and likely to be challenged in the courts. Asylum has been part of U.S. law since 1980, allowing those who fear for their safety to seek refuge in the U.S. as long as they can show a credible fear of persecution in their home country.
In a fact sheet posted on Wednesday, the White House said that “through the exercise of his authority, President Trump has further restricted access to the provisions of the immigration laws that would enable any illegal alien involved in an invasion across the southern border of the United States to remain in the United States, such as asylum.”
Presidents from both parties have in the past attempted to make it harder to seek asylum, but no other president has taken Trump’s actions to suspend it entirely.
Trump’s order is part of a slew of sweeping actions he signed since his inauguration this week to restrict legal and illegal migration to the U.S. Hours after taking office, Trump abruptly shut down a mobile app used by asylum seekers awaiting in Mexico to schedule an appointment with U.S. immigration officials.
The shutdown effectively meant asylum seekers had no way of…