US Halts All Asylum Decisions

The Trump administration has paused all asylum determinations following the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington DC, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) head has declared. The halt will last “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” according to Joseph Edlow. The USCIS – a division of the Department of Homeland Security – has been directed not to approve, refuse or dismiss asylum petitions it receives for all nationalities, said CBS News, the BBC’s US partner. According to CBS, its personnel can keep working on asylum petitions and reviewing cases until a judgment is made. Following Wednesday’s tragic assault, the Trump administration briefly banned issuing visas to Afghans under the same programme the shooting suspect had, before blocking all immigration petitions from Afghans until a review. Then on Thursday, the USCIS announced it will re-examine green cards given to individuals who had relocated to the US from 19 countries, without citing Wednesday’s incident. Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia, and Venezuela were added in a June decree that the agency cited. Details on what re-examination might look like were not supplied.

Fuente: BBC