Enter at Your Own Risk: Criminalizing Asylum-Seekers

Author: 
Thomas M. McDonnell and Vanessa Merton
Date of Publication: 
November, 2019
Source Organization: 
Other

In nearly three years in office, President Donald J. Trump’s war against immigrants and the foreign-born seems only to have intensified. Through a series of Executive Branch actions and policies rather than legislation, the Trump Administration has targeted immigrants and visitors from Muslim-majority countries, imposed quotas on and drastically reduced the independence of Immigration Court Judges, cut the number of refugees admitted by more than 80%, cancelled DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and stationed Immigration Customs and Enforcement (“ICE”) agents at state courtrooms to arrest unauthorized immigrants, intimidating them from participating as witnesses and litigants. Although initially saying that only unauthorized immigrants convicted of serious crimes would be prioritized for deportation, the Trump Administration has implicitly given ICE officers carte blanche to arrest unauthorized immigrants anytime, anywhere, creating a climate of fear in immigrant communities.

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Citation: 

McDonnell, T. M., & Merton, V. (2019). Enter at your own risk: Criminalizing asylum-seekers. Columbia Human Rights Law Review, 51(1). Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3502556

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