US issues new rules limiting asylum claims

Donald Trump's administration has unveiled new rules to sharply limit migrant asylum claims by barring individuals who cross the US southern border illegally from seeking asylum.

The rule becomes effective once a presidential proclamation is issued, which is expected to happen Friday, according to senior administration officials.

The administration announced a new federal rule -- issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department -- that will limit eligibility for asylum seekers coming from Mexico, in a call with reporters Thursday afternoon.

Officials said once the plan came into full effect, migrants entering at the US southern border would only be eligible for asylum if they reported at official ports of entry.

The interim rule, which is set to be published in the Federal Register on Friday, states that "if applied to a proclamation suspending the entry of aliens who cross the southern border unlawfully, would bar such aliens from eligibility for asylum and thereby channel inadmissible aliens to ports of entry, where they would be processed in a controlled, orderly and lawful manner."

The rule adds that "aliens who enter prior to the effective date of an applicable proclamation will not be subject to the asylum eligibility bar unless they depart and reenter while the proclamation remains in effect."

The regulation will also amend the screening process for aliens subject to a bar on asylum eligibility, a senior administration official said.

The rule does not specify whom it applies to, but discusses the issue in the context of increasing asylum claims from Central America.

A Justice Department official said the rule was signed off by Attorney General Jeff Sessions before he tendered his resignation this week, not the new acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker.

Immigrant advocates have denounced the move, saying it violated existing US law that allows people fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries to apply for asylum regardless of whether they enter illegally or not.