Trump eyes limits on immigrants seeking asylum

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is finalizing plans that would limit how immigrants seeking asylum apply to stay in the United States, a proposal likely to invite legal challenges.

Under an executive order Trump said he will sign next week, asylum seekers must first present themselves at a port of entry. The president also said he will detain asylum applicants in tent cities “for a long time” rather than allowing them into the country to await a court date.

Current immigration law allows for individuals to apply for asylum status regardless of how they arrived in the United States or their current immigration status. The asylum clause of the Immigration and Nationality Act says that anyone who arrives to the United States may apply for asylum.

"The endemic abuse of our asylum system makes a mockery of our immigration and displacing legitimate asylum seekers and there are legitimate asylum seekers," Trump said in a White House speech before leaving for a rally in Columbia, Missouri.

The president and administration officials did not provide details on the executive order. The announcement was the latest in a string of actions this week aimed at spotlighting the immigration debate ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.

It was unclear whether the new asylum plan would apply to all individuals coming into the country or just those who enter from the southern border with Mexico. For about two weeks, Trump has highlighted a caravan of migrants from Central America traveling on foot through Mexico.

The men, women and children who are mostly walking are about 900 miles from the U.S. border, according to The Associated Press.

A second, smaller group of 1,000 or so migrants is more than 200 miles behind the first caravan. A third band of about 500 from El Salvador made it to Guatemala, and a fourth group of about 700 set out from the Salvadoran capital Wednesday.

Altogether, the four caravans represent just a few days' worth of the average flow of migrants to the United States in recent years, the AP reports.

On Wednesday, Trump said he was willing to send up to 15,000 troops to the U.S-Mexico border to stop the migrants from entering the country, up from 5,200 troops he announced earlier in the week.

The troops are setting up along the border, Trump said Thursday.

“These illegal caravans will not be allowed into the United States,” Trump said Thursday. “They should turn back now. They should apply to come into our country.”

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.