Trump signs immigration proclamation, limits asylum

US President Donald Trump says he has signed an immigration order that will ban migrants, who cross the US border with Mexico illegally, from claiming asylum.

The immigration proclamation signed on Friday requires asylum seekers to make their claim at their point of entry to the US and bars immigrants from requesting asylum if they are caught crossing the border illegally.

"I just signed the proclamation on asylum, very important. People can come in but they have to come in through the ports of entry. And that to me, is a very important thing. We want people to come into our country, but they have to come into the country legally,” Trump told reporters before leaving the White House for a trip to Paris.

The order – issued by the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department – circumvented laws stating that anyone is eligible for asylum no matter how he or she enters the United States.

US government officials said the measures would be in effect for at least three months but could be extended, adding that they would take effect as of November 10 and would not affect people who are already in the country.

Immigration order calls illegal migrants ‘aliens’

The interim rule states that "if applied to a proclamation suspending the entry of aliens who cross the southern border unlawfully, would bar such aliens from eligibility for asylum and thereby channel inadmissible aliens to ports of entry, where they would be processed in a controlled, orderly and lawful manner."

The rule adds that "aliens who enter prior to the effective date of an applicable proclamation will not be subject to the asylum eligibility bar unless they depart and reenter while the proclamation remains in effect."

The regulation does not specify whom it applies to, but it comes at a time when caravans of Central American migrants – many fleeing violence, corruption and unemployment in their homeland – are slowly moving north on foot to cross the southern US border with Mexico.

PressTV-US to curb migrant asylum seekers from Central America

The United States says it will no longer allow people who enter the country outside of formal border crossings to claim asylum.

Trump has called the Central American migrants a security threat, ordering the deployment of thousands of troops to the Mexican border to contain them.

More than 7,000 active duty troops have been deployed to the US states of Texas, Arizona, and California.

The US president has also suggested that the US troopers deployed to the southwest borders can shoot at migrants if the latter threw stones or rocks at them.

Trump has announced plans to revoke the right to citizenship for babies born to non-US citizens on American soil and erect massive "tent cities" to detain migrants.

Trump has made his hard-line stance on immigration an integral part of his presidency and has promised to build a wall along the US-Mexican border to curb the flow of migrants from Mexico and Central America.

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