Central American migrants are detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at the border wall in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico, on May 7. | Herika Martinez/AFP/Getty Images immigration Trump weighs plan to choke off asylum for Central Americans The draft proposal would deny asylum to thousands of migrants waiting just south of the border.

President Donald Trump is considering sweeping restrictions on asylum that would effectively block Central American migrants from entering the U.S., according to several administration officials and advocates briefed on the plan.

A draft proposal circulating among Trump’s Homeland Security advisers would prohibit migrants from seeking asylum if they have resided in a country other than their own before coming to the U.S., according to a Homeland Security Department official and an outside advocate familiar with the plan.


If executed, it would deny asylum to thousands of migrants waiting just south of the border, many of whom have trekked a perilous journey through Mexico.

Trump is weighing the move as he pursues other plans to crack down on migration at the southern border, including new tariffs on Mexico that he announced Thursday night. Trump said he would impose a 5 percent duty on all goods coming from Mexico starting June 10 to pressure that country to do more to stop migrants from Central Americans from entering the United States.

"The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied," Trump wrote on Twitter.

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Earlier Thursday, Trump hinted at changes to his administration’s border policy as he departed for Colorado, telling reporters he was “going to do something very dramatic on the border” and would announce it in a “big league statement.”

“It will be a statement having to do with the border and having to do with people illegally coming over the border,” he said. “And it will be my biggest statement, so far, on the border. We have brought something to the light of the people. They see now it’s a national emergency, and most people agree.”

Trump said on Thursday that he would not be closing the border as he has threatened numerous times. “The asylum procedures are ridiculous,” he added. “No place in the world has what we have in terms of ridiculous immigration laws.”

Trump said last month that a recent deal with Mexico on auto exports wouldn’t count if the country failed to stop Central American migrants from illegally crossing the border. The president said he would give Mexico one year to curb illegal border crossings before pulling the trigger on new tariffs — a softening of his earlier threat to close the border entirely, but one that could still inflict economic damage on both countries. The Washington Post first reported the plan to move ahead with the tariffs.

Immigration advocates familiar with the asylum proposal expressed alarm at the scope of the plan, even as they questioned whether it would hold up in court. U.S. law allows refugees to request asylum when they arrive on U.S. soil, but has long included an exemption for those who have already emigrated to a safe country.

“This decision will cause a chain reaction — Central Americans who are fleeing for their lives being forced back into the burning house they are escaping,” said Pili Tobar, deputy director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group. “A rational approach … is to treat this like the regional refugee crisis that it is and bolster our asylum and refugee process, instead of slamming the door shut with a childish hope that migrants will not come or conditions causing them to flee will get better on their own.”

The move could reach beyond Central America, affecting asylum seekers in other parts of the world, according to an activist who has been briefed on the issue.

Trump, frustrated with his administration’s inability to halt the tide of immigrants at the southern border, has orchestrated a major staffing shakeup at the Homeland Security Department to get tougher on the issue.

His new acting DHS secretary, Kevin McAleenan, just returned from a trip to Guatemala, where he urged officials to try to stop the flow of migrants leaving the Central American country.

While the details of the new restrictions are still in flux, many migrants have been held up by Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy, which forces asylum seekers to stay in Mexico while their asylum requests are pending.

“It’s unbelievably extreme to try to inhibit anyone who comes through another country in their quest for asylum,” said Kerri Talbot, the federal advocacy director for Immigration Hub, an advocacy group for migrants. “It basically means it would block all Central Americans from coming to the U.S.”

While Trump aides believe they can make the changes through an administrative rule, they are also seeking a legislative fix that would be far less vulnerable to a court challenge. Similar language is included in Trump’s emerging immigration bill, which boosts security at the southern border and pushes the nation to admit more high-skilled, well-educated immigrants, rather than immigrants who enter the U.S. based on family ties, according to two people familiar with the proposal.

White House staff, including Ja’Ron Smith and Theodore Wold — both special assistants to the president for domestic policy — briefed Republican senators’ offices on the proposed legislation Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the meeting. The White House expects to release the legislation in the coming days.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has pushed to restrict asylum claims, said the administration has been looking for ways to make the changes for some time.

“People don’t have a right to pick and choose where they ask for asylum,” he said.

The proposal has been considered in the past by Republicans. It was included in a wide-ranging immigration House bill last year that was killed.

Andrew Restuccia and Doug Palmer contributed to this report.