Trump can refuse to accept asylum applicants

Nolan Rappaport:

Many people mistakenly believe that asylum seekers have a right to apply for asylum in the United States.

The first paragraph in the Immigration and Nationality Act’s (INA) asylum provisions provides that aliens physically present in the United States “may” apply for asylum.

But the second paragraph provides the following three exceptions, and asylum may be denied on the basis of disqualifying conduct, such as having been convicted of a particularly serious crime.

• Safe third country. – Asylum is not available to an alien who can be sent pursuant to a bilateral or multilateral agreement to a country where he will not be persecuted, other than the country of the alien's nationality; and where he will have access to a full and fair procedure for determining an asylum claim or equivalent protection. An exception is permitted when it is in the public interest for the alien to receive asylum in the United States.
• Time limit. – An alien has to file his asylum application within one year after the date of his arrival in the United States unless he can show a change in circumstances.
• Previous asylum applications. – Asylum is not available to an alien who has filed a previous application that was denied, unless he can show a change in circumstances.

The third paragraph says no court shall have jurisdiction to review any determination on the exceptions.
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The United States currently has a safe third country agreement with Canada, and Trump is being urged by GOP leaders to establish one with Mexico too. If he does this, America will not have to accept asylum applications from aliens coming here from Mexico.

Mexico already is encouraging the migrants in the caravan to apply for asylum in Mexico instead of in the United States. It has offered them temporary identification papers and jobs if they register for asylum in Mexico.

If Trump establishes third country agreements with a substantial number of countries, it could greatly reduce the number of asylum applications the United States has to consider.

Trump also is considering an executive order to keep asylum seekers from Central America out of the United States. Presumably, it would be based on section 212(f) of the INA, which reads as follows:

Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation … suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants.
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Trump might still have to deal with 9th Circuit judges who ignore the law and create their own exceptions which would force another Supreme Court review.