Attorney General Leads Coalition Effort To Protect Asylum-Seekers

SACRAMENTO – State Attorney General Xavier Becerra this morning announced that a multi-state coalition led by California has filed a comment letter seeking to protect the rights of asylum-seekers.

Under a new interim final rule, the coalition claims the Trump Administration is effectively attempting to ignore asylum claims by sending people, many of whom are fleeing violence and persecution, to third countries that have signed asylum cooperative agreements with the federal government.

“The Trump Administration is once again adding to its complex web of rules and regulations intended to stifle lawful immigration,” said Attorney General Becerra. “Not only is this latest attack on the asylum system morally reprehensible, but it also raises the specter of family separation and would weaken communities across our country. California thrives because we welcome people who work hard and seek to build a better life and a better America. We will continue to fight for their rights under our constitution.”

Under the Trump rule individuals who are already considered vulnerable would be barred from seeking protection in the United States and would instead be forced into dangerous circumstances in third countries that are not equipped to handle their claims.

Currently, Guatemala is the only country where an asylum cooperative agreement is officially in effect, yet with only 12 officials working on asylum cases in the entire country, Guatemala clearly does not have sufficient staff to handle humanitarian claims. The federal government has already announced similar planned agreements with Honduras and El Salvador.

The new rule also provides no safeguards against family separation. It contains no requirement that families who arrived together in the U.S. be removed to the same country, raising the specter of additional separation trauma that could have significant health consequences for families and children.

Indeed, not only will asylum-seekers be subject to additional screenings that may bar them from applying for asylum in the United States, they will only receive a written notice of this condition and nothing in the new regulation requires the federal government to provide that notice in a language the asylum-seeker can actually read and understand.

In the comment letter the attorneys general note that for individuals who are fleeing violence and traveling on foot for thousands of miles, the new rules instill an impossibly high burden that require an extensive understanding of U.S. immigration laws and a working knowledge of the conditions of countries the asylum-seekers may have never even visited.

Further, they believe that with limited time to prepare a response and potentially without access to legal counsel, the additional screening risks simply being an empty, discriminatory formality that violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The coalition thus argues that the rule is arbitrary and capricious and is contrary to the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The attorneys general of Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia joined with California in submitting the comments.

A copy of the comment letter can be viewed here: https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/2019.12.19_SafeCountry_ACA_CommentLetter_Final.pdf