BREAKING: New Policy Will Require Compliance with the Law
CBS News: ‘Trump Plan Would Allow for Quick Asylum Rejections Without Interviews’
By Andrew R. Arthur on June 2, 2026
On June 1, CBS News reported that a new “Trump administration plan would allow for quick asylum rejections without interviews”, according to what the network referred to as “internal documents”. Skip the headline and this story becomes a yawner because as CBS News explains, this “plan” would only apply to asylum claims filed more than a year after the applicant arrived here, which are already largely barred under the “asylum statute”, section 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
The “One-Year Bar”
Under section 208(a)(1) of the INA, aliens “physically present in the United States” or who arrive in this country (legally or otherwise) “may apply for asylum”.
As an aside, note that the Supreme Court is mulling over whether an alien who is on the threshold of, but who hasn’t passed into, the United States must be allowed to apply for asylum. Expect an opinion settling that question to come later this month.
Back to the main point, however, what Congress in the INA giveth, Congress in the INA may take away, and section 208(a)(2) of the INA, “Exceptions”, bars certain aliens from “applying for” asylum under section 208(a)(1).
The most common exception, at section 208(a)(2)(B) (“Time limit”), bars asylum applications filed by aliens who fail to “demonstrate[] by clear and convincing evidence” that their applications have been “filed within 1 year after the date of the alien’s arrival in the United States”, commonly known as the “one-year bar”.
https://cis.org/Arthur/BREAKING-New-Policy-Will-Require-Compliance-Law
