Sessions Overturns Asylum Requirements; House Introduces Immigration Bills

FEATURING ISABEL SANCHEZ – Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday issued a ruling on the conditions for refugees to seek asylum in the US saying that domestic violence and gang violence would no longer be sufficient grounds for asylum. The ruling could have devastating impacts on the majority of Central Americans hoping to live in the US, some of whom are waiting in the country for their cases to be processed and others of whom are stranded at the border with Mexico.

Meanwhile, news reports have leaked that the Trump administration is considering the use of tent cities to house the growing numbers of undocumented children that the government is seizing from parents crossing the border. The proposal has sparked an outcry among immigrant advocates.

The House is expected to hear two legislative proposals dealing with the nation’s fraught immigration laws, one of which is being touted as a “compromise” bill. But immigration experts say neither is good enough to meet the human rights needs of the nation’s millions of undocumented immigrants.

Isabel Sanchez, National Policy Advocate with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights.