Immigration advocates decry the new US rule on Caribbean asylum seekers.
Immigration advocates in the United States have condemned a proposed new rule that they say will significantly impact Caribbean and other asylum seekers.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would allow statutory bars to asylum to be applied much earlier in the process.
It said, US federal law bars individuals who pose a national security or public safety risk from asylum, specifically those who have been convicted of a particularly serious crime and participated in the persecution of others.
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says such migrants are inadmissible on national security or terrorism-related grounds, and that while anyone who is deemed to pose a public safety threat is taken into custody, the asylum eligibility determination is not currently made until later in the process.
The New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York State, says the new measure will seriously affect how asylum seekers will be screened.
The new rules were published on Thursday by the DHS.
DHS says it has removed or returned more than 720,000 migrants to 170 countries around the world between May 12, 2023 and May 1, 2024.