SAN DIEGO — One of President Donald Trump’s top priorities on immigration if he wins a second term would be to use agreements with Central American governments as models to get countries around the world to field asylum claims from people seeking refuge in the United States, a top adviser said Friday.
Stephen Miller, a key architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said the agreements would help stop “asylum fraud, asylum shopping and asylum abuse on a global scale.”
Miller, in an interview with The Associated Press, also forecast a broader offensive against so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, saying the administration would use its “full power, resources and authority.” He vowed more efforts toward legal immigration “based on merit.”
The “Asylum Cooperative Agreements” that the administration
struck in 2019 have allowed for asylum
seekers from El Salvador and
From November to March, when the coronavirus pandemic halted
flights to
Like many of Trump’s policies that have dramatically
transformed the
The coronavirus struck before flights began to
Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden have given scant attention to immigration in their 2020 campaigns, despite a spirited exchange during Thursday’s debate that was prompted by news that court-appointed lawyers have been unable to find parents of 545 children who were separated from their families early in the Trump administration
Trump has yet to outline second-term immigration priorities
in detail, though he has openly toyed with trying to repeal a constitutional
right to citizenship for anyone born in the
Biden has pledged to undo many, but not all, of Trump’s policies. With the pandemic and other issues, it is unclear how much appetite Biden would have to tackle all that Trump has done.
Biden campaign spokesman Mike Gwin, reacting to Miller’s comments, highlighted how far apart the candidates are on immigration.
“We are going to win this election so that people like
Stephen Miller don’t get the chance to write more xenophobic policies that
dishonor our American values,” Gwin said. “Unlike Trump, Vice President Biden
knows that immigrants make
Biden will introduce legislation within his first 100 days to provide a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally, bring back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to shield young people from deportation and “restore America’s historic commitment” to refuges and asylum-seekers, Gwin said.
Biden, on his campaign website, is silent about the asylum
agreements that the Trump administration struck with
Administration officials have discussed adding countries
from Africa and
Such agreements could potentially be proposed to countries
that send large numbers of asylum-seekers to the
Trump, who made immigration a signature issue in his 2016 campaign, has introduced a flurry of regulations in recent months that are expected to be finalized soon after incorporating public feedback. They are largely about restricting asylum.
Administration officials are also looking at ways to do away
with a lottery to award H-1B visas to highly
skilled workers, many in the technology industry, replacing it with another
selection method. H-1B visas are capped at
Miller said the administration would continue its efforts to redefine criteria for legal immigration, which are now largely based on family ties.