Trump administration blocks asylum claims by those crossing US border illegally

The Trump administration has taken a major step to restrict asylum claims by barring "aliens" who illegally cross the US southern border to seek asylum, a controversial move by President Donald Trump on efforts to crackdown on immigration.

The move, opposed by several right groups, is at preventing the several thousands of people, mainly from three Latin American countries - Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador - from entering the country and using the existing asylum law to gain entry into the United States.

The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security published a joint rule on Thursday prohibiting certain people caught crossing the US southern border from Mexico between ports of entry from claiming asylum.

Once the plan goes into full effect, migrants entering at the US southern border would only be eligible for asylum if they report at official ports of entry, officials said.

For doing so, President Trump is using his authority to suspend or restrict entry of aliens into the US if he determines it to be in the national interest to do so.

"Our asylum system is overwhelmed with too many meritless asylum claims from aliens who place a tremendous burden on our resources, preventing us from being able to expeditiously grant asylum to those who truly deserve it," Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a joint statement.

The president is also expected to sign an accompanying directive specifying which migrants would be subject to the new asylum limits, senior administration officials said. The officials did not say to whom the ban would apply.

President Trump made his hard-line policies toward immigration a key issue ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections. The announcement on Thursday suggests he will not ease up on his immigration crackdown, which dominated his first two years in office.

"Today, we are using the authority granted to us by Congress to bar aliens who violate a Presidential suspension of entry or other restriction from asylum eligibility," they said.

"The interim rule, if applied to a hypothetical proclamation suspending the entry of aliens who cross the border unlawfully, would bar them eligibility for asylum, and thereby channel inadmissible aliens to ports of entry where they would processed in a controlled, orderly and lawful manner," a senior administration official told reporters during a conference call.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer described the latest move as "inhumane" and as part of Trump's ill-conceived asylum policies.

"Imposing illegal restrictions on refugees seeking asylum through the proper channels according to US law runs counter to our principles as a nation and represents a gross overreach of presidential power," he said.

"Upending our asylum process and rejecting people who have travelled thousands of miles to escape violence and death from even seeking asylum at the border is not only immoral, it's illegal," said Steven Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.

The statute, section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which governs the US immigration system, states that the president can suspend entry of foreigners deemed "detrimental to the interests of the United States."