Today, our president issued a memorandum to the attorney general and secretary of homeland security. Click here to read the whole document in PDF form; I’ve pulled excerpts below.
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 29, 2019
MEMORANDUM FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL / THE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY
SUBJECT: Additional Measures to Enhance Border Security and Restore Integrity to Our Immigration System
In March, more than 100,000 inadmissible aliens were encountered seeking entry into the United States. Many aliens travel in large caravans or other large organized groups, and many travel with children. The extensive resources required to process and care for these individuals pulls U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel away from securing our Nation's borders. Additionally, illicit organizations benefit financially by smuggling illegal aliens into the United States and encouraging abuse of our asylum procedures. This strategic exploitation of our Nation's humanitarian programs undermines our Nation's security and sovereignty. The purpose of this memorandum is to strengthen asylum procedures to safeguard our system against rampant abuse of our asylum process.
Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, as applicable, shall take all appropriate actions to:
(c) propose regulations setting a fee for an asylum application not to exceed the costs of adjudicating the application, as authorized by section 208(d)(3) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)(3)) and other applicable statutes, and setting a fee for an initial application for employment authorization for the period an asylum claim is pending; and
(d) propose regulations under section 208(d)(2) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1158(d)(2)) and other applicable statutes to bar aliens who have entered or attempted to enter the United States unlawfully from receiving employment authorization before any applicable application for relief or protection from removal has been granted, and to ensure immediate revocation of employment authorization for aliens who are denied asylum or become subject to a final order of removal.
DONALD J. TRUMP
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Here’s what that means for people who flee their home countries and cross our border to seek asylum: they’ll be required to pay a fee to file their asylum request, and they won’t be allowed to apply for a temporary work permit while they wait for the courts to process that request.
Here in the borderlands, on the ground, churches, charities, volunteers, and local governments are doing everything they can to provide asylum seekers with basic help when they’re released from detention—hugs, hot soup, the first shower they’ve had in days or weeks, cots and blankets so they’re not sleeping on rocky dirt or concrete floors.
Back in Washington, far from the people affected, the Trump administration’s response to the border’s humanitarian crisis is always to criminalize and crack down. To victimize the victims, more and more, over and over. Now? Now they’re monetizing the asylum process, demanding money from the destitute while denying them any way to earn money in our country.