Trump's new plan for asylum seekers isn't just stupid and xenophobic — it's unworkable

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. And in a statement senior director of migrant rights and justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission Michelle Brané said, “Like the previous travel and asylum bans, this is the latest attempt by President Trump to try to undermine and eliminate asylum by circumventing both Congress and existing law. Seeking safety is a human right.” This crisis-turned-catastrophe at the border is occurring in the context of the Migrant Protection Protocols, also known as the “Stay in Mexico” policy, where migrants are left to wait in overcrowded and often unsafe and unsanitary conditions in Mexican border cities, waiting months for a meeting with US officials to apply for asylum. If you process fewer people, then you grant fewer asylum applications.” Ilhan Omar urges America to not 'take the bait' in response to Trump's racist tweets Taylor Levy, an immigration attorney and legal coordinator at the El Paso non-profit Annunciation House explained that, “The Trump administration is attempting to unilaterally override long-existing statutes and international treaty obligations via administrative rulemaking, in direct contradiction of the law. The published rule will almost certainly be quickly enjoined by the courts, but only after causing panic and confusion among desperate people who have fled their home countries and arrived at our borders seeking asylum.” The announcement by DHS comes on the heels of two other racist dramas the president instigated: the first being Trump’s bull-headed attempt to circumvent the US Supreme Court’s limited ruling to block the citizenship question on the 2020 Census.