Trump's fee for asylum seekers faulted by left

Proposed charge for asylum and work applications comes in presidential memo

The Trump administration's proposal to set a fee for those seeking asylum on the southern border is "another attack" and won't solve the problem, say rights groups.

US President Donald Trump proposed the fee for those filing asylum claims and for work permit applications. The fee will not exceed the costs of adjudicating the application, according to the presidential memorandum released on April 29.

"We view it as just another attack on asylum seekers. There've been so many examples starting with turning back asylum seekers at the southern border, family separation, and the 'remain in Mexico' policy," Melissa Crow, senior supervising attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told China Daily.

"The administration's rhetoric has left no question that they are trying to deter asylum seekers from coming to our country," she said.

The fees on asylum applications would make it harder to apply, Crow said.

"They've got to grant some kind of waiver for people who are too poor to afford whatever the fee is. We don't know how burdensome it would be," she said.

In the memorandum, Trump also proposes new regulations to ensure that applications are adjudicated within 180 days of filing. He also wants to bar people who entered the US between ports of entry from receiving a provisional work permit.

"He (Trump) says the goal was to shorten the processing time, but it's not clear to me that it's going to actually happen," Crow said.

Due to a backlog in US immigration courts, those who pass the initial interview are expected to wait months or years for their cases to be adjudicated.

"They are still going to give people asylum hearings, although it did say streamlined hearings," said Crow.

In many cases, the people who come to the US after having fled persecution don't have any claim other than an asylum claim, so the hearing isn't going to be different than it was, she explained.

Crow said the proposal to not grant a work permit for people who have entered the country between ports of entry or revoke work authorization from certain people is "crazy" and has "no reasonable explanation".

"The Immigration and Nationality Act is clear that asylum is available to anyone, no matter whether they enter at the port of entry or between ports of entry because asylum seekers flee their countries and are desperate to find a haven," she said. "So it doesn't make any sense to discriminate in terms of whether to give them work authorization.

"These people have no other way to survive and they are willing to work and contribute to our economy. So it really seems kind of absurd," she said.

The past few months have seen an influx of Central American migrants, especially families, into the US.

From October 2018 to March, the US Border Patrol has seen more than a 370 percent increase in the number of family units apprehended, compared with the same time period in the previous year, according to US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) latest data.

In March, 60 percent of apprehensions along the Southwest border are family units and unaccompanied children, made up predominantly of individuals from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, CBP said.

The Trump administration's "national security crisis" is a political tactic and not a real security crisis, said Richard Waxman, president of Community Wellness Consulting LLC in San Rafael, California. His group has been advocating for refugees and immigrants for more than two years.

"There is truly a humanitarian crisis that needs a humanitarian approach," he said.