AP: Trump quietly shuts down asylum at US borders to fight virus

[Laura PourMeADrink]

https://news.lee.net/tncms/asset/editorial/8534a6a6-7a6a-11ea-a0b8-dfae21af6cd6/



FILE - In this Thursday, March 14, 2019, file photo, a Border Patrol agent talks with a group suspected of having entered the U.S. illegally near McAllen, Texas. The Trump administration has quietly shut down the nation's asylum system for the first time in decades amid coronavirus concerns, largely because holding people in custody is considered too dangerous. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Snip
The U.S. government used an obscure public health law to justify one of its most aggressive border crackdowns ever. People fleeing violence and poverty to seek refuge in the U.S. are whisked to the nearest border crossing and returned to Mexico without a chance to apply for asylum. It eclipses President Donald Trump's other policies to curtail immigration — which often rely on help from Mexico — by setting aside decades-old national and international laws.

[UTUSN]

1. There have been an article or two - not exactly quietly, but ignored.