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Austria Says Migrant Redistribution ‘Has Failed’, Refuses Asylum Seekers

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Austria’s Europe minister has said that the EU’s compulsory migrant redistribution scheme “has failed” and member-states should be able to choose whether to accept migrants or not.

While some 150 non-governmental organisations have put pressure on Austria to accept Middle Eastern migrants stuck in Greece because of the worsening coronavirus pandemic, two government spokesmen have said that Austria will maintain its current policy and not accept any more asylum seekers.

“It remains a no,” confirmed Claudia Türtscher, the spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), according to Kronen Zeitung.

Ms Türtscher referred the media back to Chancellor Kurz’s remarks from last month when he warned against the European Union transferring any migrants from Greece and attempting to redistribute them across the political bloc.

“If the European Union allows these people to enter, millions will be on their way,” the 33-year-old Austrian premier said last month, insisting that the best course of action for his country is “to support Greece as best as possible and to send a clear message as an EU”.

(Read more from “Austria Says Migrant Redistribution ‘Has Failed’, Refuses Asylum Seekers” HERE)

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New AG Ruling Says Gang Targeting Doesn’t Meet Asylum Requirements Under U.S. Law

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Having a family targeted by organized crime does not rise to the level of grounds for asylum under federal law, according to a new immigration ruling from Attorney General William Barr issued on Monday.

On paper, the requirements for obtaining asylum in the United States are fairly narrow. After all, if they weren’t so narrow, the asylum system might be overrun with people fleeing street crime or bad economic conditions. As President Obama explained back in 2014 when he faced a border crisis similar to the current one, “typically refugee status is not granted just based on economic need or because a family lives in a bad neighborhood or poverty.”

Under current, decades-old federal law, asylum applicants have to prove that they have been persecuted or face a reasonable fear of persecution “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

In the case being ruled on here, the respondent claimed that he belonged to a “particular social group” because his father owned a local store targeted by a drug cartel. The attorney general found that that claim didn’t fit the law.

“While the Board has recognized certain clans and subclans as ‘particular social groups,’ most nuclear families are not inherently socially distinct and therefore do not qualify as ‘particular social groups,’” the ruling determined.

“The respondent did not show that anyone, other than perhaps the cartel, viewed the respondent’s family to be distinct in Mexican society,” the ruling explained. “If cartels or other criminals created a cognizable family social group every time they victimized someone, then the social-distinction requirement would be effectively eliminated.”

“Further, as almost every alien is a member of a family of some kind, categorically recognizing families as particular social groups would render virtually every alien a member of a particular social group,” the ruling added elsewhere. “There is no evidence that Congress intended the term ‘particular social group’ to cast so wide a net.”

Barr made the ruling in his role as chief immigration judge. Both the Board of Immigration Appeals and U.S. immigration courts are under the authority of the Department of Justice, rather than the judicial branch. A regulation put forward earlier this summer cemented the attorney general’s ability to make binding, precedent-setting decisions on immigration matters like this one.

The move comes just two weeks after DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security announced a new regulation to cut down on frivolous asylum claims by requiring that potential asylees first seek refuge in the first safe country they come to. A separate report says that regulations requiring applicants to stay in Mexico while applying for asylum is making other migrants give up and head back home to Central America. (For more from the author of “New AG Ruling Says Gang Targeting Doesn’t Meet Asylum Requirements Under U.S. Law” please click HERE)

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A Judge Just Ruled Asylum Claims Must Be Accepted Anywhere Along Border

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The White House announced earlier this month that migrants hoping to enter the U.S. could only claim asylum at certain points of entry, not just anywhere along the border. Critics accused President Trump of circumventing Congress and rights groups like the ACLU challenged the decision in court. The opponents have now won a short term victory.

Judge Jon S. Tigar of the United States District Court in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order on Monday blocking the new rule. . .

President Trump has sounded off on the migrant caravan heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it an “invasion.” He sent about 5,000 troops to the border to prevent the caravan from entering the U.S.

(Read more from “A Judge Just Ruled Asylum Claims Must Be Accepted Anywhere Along Border” HERE)

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What You Need to Know About the Lawsuit Against Trump’s New Asylum Policies

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This morning a federal judge will hear a challenge to the Trump administration’s recently announced changes to the rules governing asylum.

The changes came mere days after the midterm election and in response to the Central American caravan’s continued approach to the U.S. border. On November 9, 2018, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielsen jointly issued new regulations governing asylum claims. Those regulations provide that individuals who enter the United States in contravention of the presidential proclamation suspending entry of aliens through the southern border with Mexico, other than at a port of entry, are ineligible for asylum. The following day, President Trump issued the referenced proclamation.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) responded immediately, filing suit in a San Francisco-based federal court on behalf of four nonprofit organizations that assist asylum applicants: East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, Al Otro Lado, Innovation Law Lab, and Central American Resource Center in Los Angeles. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs allege that the Trump administration’s newly issued asylum regulations violate the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement that regulations be published 30 days prior to their effective date. The nonprofit organizations also argue that the regulations violate the Immigration and Nationality Act by barring those who illegally cross the southern border from qualifying for asylum. . .

The Department of Justice argued in its brief that the plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the regulations at issue. The Trump administration is correct. To sue, a plaintiff must suffer a cognizable injury and, in this case, the changes to the rules governing asylum do not harm the nonprofit organizations. . .

The ACLU’s third-party standing argument fares no better, though, for three reasons. First, the plaintiffs did not make this argument in their initial court filing and such belated arguments are waived. Second, even if the plaintiffs had not waived the argument, in order to assert third-party standing Al Otro Lado and the other nonprofit plaintiffs must still suffer an actual injury. It is not enough that the regulations harm third parties not before the court. (Read more from “What You Need to Know About the Lawsuit Against Trump’s New Asylum Policies” HERE)

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Trump Moves Toward Tightening Asylum Claims at Border

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By The Daily Caller. The Trump administration will publish a new rule in the federal register allowing the president to classify a group of aliens as ineligible for asylum claims if they illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border, senior administration officials told reporters Thursday afternoon.

The new rule in the federal register will allow President Donald Trump in the future to classify a group of aliens under his authority from the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“The interim rule, if applied to a proclamation suspending the entry of aliens who cross the southern border unlawfully, would bar such aliens from eligibility for asylum and thereby channel inadmissible aliens to ports of entry, where they would be processed in a controlled, orderly, and lawful manner,” new Department of Justice guidance reads.

“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,” acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker said in a Thursday statement. (Read more from “Trump Moves Toward Tightening Asylum Claims at Border” HERE)

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Trump Administration Publishes Rule Restricting Asylum Seekers

By NBC News. Fulfilling President Donald Trump’s midterm promise to crack down on undocumented immigrants crossing the Southwest border, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security published a rule on Thursday that will make it harder for immigrants to claim asylum if they are caught crossing the border between designated ports of entry.

Senior administration officials told reporters on a conference call that the president has the legal authority to do so because of sections of immigration law that allow the president discretion over who is admitted into the United States — the same language the administration used to support its travel ban in court.

The officials said the plan is to force more immigrants who wish to claim asylum to do so at designated ports of entry. Recently, many asylum-seekers have chosen to cross illegally because they are kept waiting for days in Mexico due to backlogs at ports of entry. (Read more from “Trump Administration Publishes Rule Restricting Asylum Seekers” HERE)

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Administration Eases Restrictions on Asylum Seekers with Loose Terror Ties

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Photo Credit: APThe Obama administration has unilaterally eased restrictions on asylum seekers with loose or incidental ties to terror and insurgent groups, in a move one senator called “deeply alarming.”

The change, approved by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Secretary of State John Kerry, was announced Wednesday in the Federal Register. It would allow some individuals who provided “limited material support” to terror groups to be considered for entry into the U.S.

Supporters of the change, including Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., argued that the current ban on anyone who has ever aided terrorists has unfairly blocked thousands of refugees.

“The existing interpretation was so broad as to be unworkable,” Leahy said in a statement. “It resulted in deserving refugees and asylees being barred from the United States for actions so tangential and minimal that no rational person would consider them supporters of terrorist activities.”

But critics say despite the good intentions, the change raises security concerns, particularly after a report published Thursday on asylum fraud.

Read more from this story HERE.

Australia’s New Prime Minister Scraps Carbon Tax and Halts Asylum-Seeking Boats

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Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Tony Abbott was sworn in as Australia’s new prime minister on Wednesday and immediately ordered the scrapping of the nation’s carbon tax and the halting of asylum-seeker boats.

The 55-year-old conservative launched straight into work with a cabinet meeting after the ceremony at Government House in Canberra where his Liberal/National government officially brought six years of Labor rule to a close.

“Today is not just a ceremonial day, it’s an action day. The Australian people expect us to get straight down to business and that’s exactly what this government will do,” said, Abbott, a political hardman who has worked to soften his macho image in recent months.

In presenting his frontbench team to Governor-General Quentin Bryce, he added: “We will be a problem-solving government based on values not ideology.”

Abbott was elected on September 7 on a pledge to quickly scrap taxes on corporate pollution and mining profits imposed under Labor, as well as introducing a costly paid parental leave scheme and a vow to build new roads across the vast nation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Congressman Reveals Obama Policy That Opened Asylum Floodgates

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asylum1Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano that reveals the Obama administration policy of asylum overwhelms the ability to enforce laws. This comes in the wake of a Breitbart News story about the sudden surge of “credible fear” requests at Mexico/U.S. border crossings.

The letter begins by referencing the story that Breitbart News brought to national prominence:

“Dear Secretary Napolitano,

I write regarding the recent surge in foreign nationals, largely from Mexico, claiming asylum at U.S. ports of entry. This surge has been overwhelming Border Patrol agents in San Diego, California. Border Patrol agents reported that in one day 200 aliens came through the Otay Mesa, San Diego port of entry while as many as 550 overflowed the processing center there and in nearby San Ysidro claiming a “credible fear” of the drug cartels in Mexico.”

Rep. Goodlatte then lays out the concern that another Breitbart News story pointed out—that the asylum process is being exploited by Mexican nationals—and highlights the surge in such claims since 2009:

“Such claims have increased from 5,222 in 2009 to 23,408 in just the first three quarters of 2013. According to the most recent data available, DHS is permitting 92% of these claimants to move forward to further proceedings, despite the fact that press reports indicate that up to 91% of these claimants from Mexico are ultimately denied. In addition, most are likely being released into the U.S. pending further proceedings before Immigration Judges as opposed to being detained as required by law.”

Read more from this story HERE.