On Tuesday, the Department of Justice teamed up with Homeland Security to smack down hard on criminals trying to enter America through a major rule change. One of the best ways to ease the burden on officials trying to sort legitimate claims for asylum from the Obama era free pass seekers is to weed out the criminals before they get in line.
If you ever got busted for a dime bag of happy grass, you can forget about claiming U.S. asylum.
Final rule to restrict ‘criminal aliens’
Effective a month from Wednesday, the new joint rule will prevent convicted felons, drunk drivers, wife beaters, gang members and other lowlifes from receiving asylum in this country. The Department of Justice got together with the Department of Homeland Security to hammer out the final regulations “to prevent certain categories of criminal aliens from obtaining asylum in the United States.”
In their statement to the press about the new rule, officials of the two departments explained that Asylum is “is a discretionary immigration benefit.” In general any eligible alien can apply, either if they are already here or just now arriving.
Congress already had laws to ban certain “categories of aliens from receiving asylum.” Now there are more.
Besides the so-called “statutory bars,” Congress delegated authority “to the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to establish by regulation additional bars on asylum eligibility.” They can make any rule they want that’s “consistent with the asylum statute.”
Immigration and Nationality Act
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, congress gave the department heads the power to establish “any other conditions or limitations on the consideration of an application for asylum,” that are consistent with the INA. That is the basis for the latest rule change.
The Trump administration wants to make sure that “criminal aliens cannot obtain this discretionary benefit.”
To that effect, “the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security have exercised their regulatory authority to limit eligibility for asylum for aliens who have engaged in specified categories of criminal behavior.”
Under the latest version of the rule, not only killers and rapists kept out, anyone with any MS-13 tats should forget about even trying. Domestic abusers and drug addicts aren’t welcome either.
The release spells out that, the new rule applies to “aliens who are convicted of a felony.” Also anyone even charged with “Alien Smuggling or Harboring Illegal Reentry.” Any crime “involving criminal street gang activity” will get you blacklisted.
So will “certain federal, state, tribal, or local offenses concerning the operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant, domestic violence offense, or who are found by an adjudicator to have engaged in acts of battery or extreme cruelty in a domestic context, even if no conviction resulted.”
Finally, Uncle Sam doesn’t like frauds and cheats. “false identification, the unlawful receipt of public benefits, or possession or trafficking of a controlled substance” will keep you on the outside looking in.
