Trump proposes asylum policy shift

President Donald Trump wants to bar people who enter the United States illegally from receiving political asylum, the latest in a string of White House policy moves to tighten control of the U.S. border with Mexico. U.S. immigration laws allow migrants to seek asylum at or between border crossings, but the president proposes limiting it to official crossing points. He also proposed erecting massive tents to accommodate the overflow of migrants from detention centers. Under current protocol, many asylum seekers are released from custody while their cases make their way through backlogged courts, a process that can take years. “We’re going to catch, we’re not going to release,” Trump said Thursday at a political rally in Columbia, Mo.

Four known caravans of migrants from Central America are making their way toward the United States through Mexico. The first and largest group has about 4,000 members and remains in southern Mexico, hundreds of miles from the U.S. border.