Hundreds of migrants waiting months to enter the U.S. may no longer be eligible for asylum
TIJUANA, Mexico It took William, a 39-year-old asylum seeker, four months to get from Cameroon to Tijuana.
The journey took him through Nigeria, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala before he finally reached the U.S.-Mexico border.
He arrived in June one month before the official cutoff date of a new policy that disqualifies any asylum seeker who passed through another country on the way to the southern border from asylum if that person did not apply in another country first.
But even though William arrived to the border before that July 16 date, he hasnt actually entered the United States. Thats because he spent all summer waiting for his number to be called out in a notoriously slow-moving waitlist.
I have been following the rules, he said. I dont want to enter illegally. Thats why Ive been here three months.
There are more than 11,000 migrants in that asylum waitlist. Many of them, like William, have been waiting to enter the United States well before the Trump administration introduced the policy that makes many of them now ineligible for asylum.
That policy was first introduced in July 16. But a federal judge in San Francisco blocked it from taking effect because of a lawsuit over its legality. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court decided that the policy could continue to be enforced while the lower court case continues.
That decision means that non-Mexican migrants who enter the U.S. after July 16 are ineligible for asylum if they did not apply for asylum in another country first.
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