The Trump administration is introducing new rules for applicants for non-immigrant visas to the U.S., which may make it more difficult or effectively limit subsequent asylum applications.
According to The Washington Post, the State Department has sent new instructions to embassies and consulates regarding applicants for tourist, business, student, and other short-term visas.
Diplomatic missions are instructed to directly ask applicants if they fear returning to their home country and to record potential grounds for asylum applications.
According to the publication’s assessment, these measures, combined with other administration initiatives, can be used as an additional filter at an early stage of application review.
▫️This concerns the further narrowing of already limited channels of legal migration to the U.S. under the current administration. Previously, Trump had already imposed pauses on issuing immigrant visas to dozens of countries, as well as suspended asylum case reviews and visa issuance for Afghan citizens, tying this to rhetoric about a ‘permanent pause’ on migration from ‘third countries’, the publication writes.
The Washington Post notes that the innovation does not cancel the legally enshrined right of a person to apply for asylum, but it creates additional obstacles and risks even at the outer perimeter — at the stage of applying for a visa at the consulate. Essentially, an applicant who openly expresses fear of persecution may lose their chances of obtaining a non-immigrant visa, while remaining silent could lead to accusations of withholding information or abusing the visa regime.
Human rights advocates and migration law experts interviewed by the publication warn that such practices exacerbate the state of “migration limbo” — a situation where people find themselves between countries and jurisdictions, remaining without protection and without a clear legal prospect.
