LCCR Condemns New Trump Rule Restricting Asylum Eligibility

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2018
Press Contact: Matt Kovac, mkovac@lccr.com, 415-510-9601
LCCR Condemns New Trump Rule Restricting Asylum Eligibility
Asylum Program vows to continue fighting Trump’s white nationalist agenda
SAN FRANCISCO – In response to the Trump administration’s proclamation seeking to restrict eligibility for asylum to only those who cross the border at designated “ports of entry,” the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR) issued the following statement, attributable to Bree Bernwanger, Senior Staff Attorney for Immigrant Justice:
“This is just the latest effort by the Trump administration to illegally bar people from seeking asylum protections. Federal law and our international treaty obligations clearly state that immigrants can apply for asylum regardless of where or how they enter the country. Trump’s ‘proclamation’ is illegal on its face. By its very terms, it seeks specifically to exclude Central American asylum seekers fleeing the highest levels of violence outside of a war zone in the world.
“Not only is this a shameless attempt to override existing law, it is made in manifestly bad faith. The Border Patrol routinely turns away asylum seekers, including our clients, at ports of entry. Ordering asylum seekers to report to those sites, knowing full well that they may be denied entry and forced to struggle for survival within view of U.S. checkpoints, is unconscionable and unlawful. Trump’s latest effort to circumvent settled law isn’t about making the asylum process more ‘orderly’ – it’s about undoing asylum protections altogether.
“LCCR will continue to defend asylum seekers and challenge state-sponsored racism in the Bay Area, at the border, and everywhere in between.”
LCCR’s Asylum Program has proudly served asylum seekers since 1983.

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