US joins in global movement to make asylum harder to obtain

TIJUANA, Mexico — The U.S. has sent a Honduran migrant back to Guatemala in a move that marked a new phase of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Asylum was once an afterthought in American immigration policy. But it has taken centre stage as Trump aligns the U.S. with the European Union and other wealthy nations that are making it increasingly hard to obtain.

Thursday’s flight marked the first time the U.S. sent an asylum-seeker back to Guatemala under a new policy. It forbids anyone who travels through another country to the U.S.-Mexico border from applying for asylum there.

The man had an option to file an asylum claim in Guatemala, but he decided against it and returned to Honduras.

Trump has called asylum “a scam” and declared that the U.S. is “full.”

Elliot Spagat, The Associated Press