The Trump Administration Is Trying To Cancel Asylum. Yes, All Of It.

Normally, I use this column to try to call people’s attention to the immigration-related skullduggery the Trump administration quietly sneaks through while we’re all distracted by the latest tweetstorm. Because my only power is to call attention to those things, these columns tend to end with the text equivalent of that gif of Ilana Glazer screaming.

But today, I have a special treat for you: Something you can actually do something about! And you don’t even need to put on pants.

Last week, on the same day the left was celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock, the Department of Homeland Security announced a proposed rule that effectively guts federal asylum law. The proposal is framed as a series of rules based on United States asylum law, but it could be better understood as an attempt to radically change that law without bothering to get the Congressional approval that the Constitution requires. The proposed rule would deny asylum to:

• Anyone who passed through two or more countries on the way to the United States.
• Anyone who stayed in another country for at least 14 days before arriving in the United States.
• Anyone who has been unlawfully present in the United States for at least a year. This is even though the statute directly says aliens may apply for asylum “irrespective of such alien’s status.”
• Anyone who claims they were persecuted based on gender (because nobody ever does anything mean to women!)
• Anyone who claims they were persecuted based on opposition to gangs or terrorist organizations.

If you’re familiar with why and how many Central Americans come to this country, it’s difficult not to see these as geographically/racially targeted.