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World
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FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2020
Americas
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Trump
administration
on
Wednesday
proposed sweeping restrictions
on asylum, seeking to align a legal
framework with the President’s
efforts to limit immigration to the
United States (US).
The moves are only the latest
in a series of measures that Trump
has taken to limit asylum — this time
aimed at changing complicated
guidelinesandproceduresgoverning
immigration courts.
The changes, outlined in 150
pages of legalese, aim to rede ine
how people qualify for asylum
and similar forms of protection to
prevent them from being persecuted
or tortured if sent home.
Judges will be allowed to dismiss
cases without court hearings if
supporting evidence is determined
tobe tooweak. Ruleswill de inewhen
a claim may be declared “frivolous”
and raise the threshold for initial
screenings under the United Nations
(UN) Convention Against Torture.
The administration will propose
new de initions for some ways
peoplequalify for asylum, speci ically
“political opinion” and membership
in a “particular social group”.
Asylum is for people who face
persecution for their race, religion,
nationality, political opinion or
membership in a social group, a
loose category that may include
victims of gangor domestic violence.
Narrowing those ways to qualify
would mean more rejected claims.
The Justice and Homeland
Security departments said asylum-
seekers who clear initial screenings
will have claims heard by an
immigration judge in “streamlined
proceedings”, according to a brief
pressrelease,replacinglongstanding
rules in immigration law.
Since the US became the world’s
top destination for asylum-seekers
in 2017, the Trump administration
has made multiple attempts to make
it harder to get, asserting that the
system is rife with abuse.
The Justice and Homeland
Security departments said the
changes would bringmore ef iciency
to a systemwith an immigration court
backlog of over 1.1 million cases.
The rules will “more effec-
tively separate baseless claims
from meritorious ones”, the de-
partments said. “This would bet-
ter ensure groundless claims do
not delay or divert resources from
deserving claims.”
Critics swiftly condemned the
measure. Policy counsel for the
American Immigration Council
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick said it
was much more far-reaching than
Trump’s previous attempts to
curb asylum and “would lead to
the denial of virtually every claim
except a lucky few”.
“The proposed changes would
represent the end of the asylum
system as we know it,” he said.
Details are expected to be
published in the Federal Register
on Monday with 30 days for public
Trump administration proposes
sweeping asylum restrictions
comment before they take
effect. Lawsuits may delay or
derail the effort.
The administration effectively
put asylum out of reach for
many people at the Canadian
and Mexican borders in March
under a 1944 public health law
aimed at preventing spread of
the coronavirus, but that move is
described as temporary. It allows
the government to immediately
expel people from Mexico and
Central America to Mexico
without claiming asylum, usually
within two hours.
United States (US) President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable
discussion in the Cabinet Room of the White House. PHOTO: AP
Law enforcement personnel patrol Spring Street in downtown Paso Robles.
PHOTO: AP
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California
sheriff’s deputy was shot in the
head but survived an “ambush”
by a gunman intent on harming
or killing police and authorities
said on Wednesday they were
investigating whether there was a
connection to two recent deadly
attacks on of icers.
United States (US) Authorities
were looking for Mason James Lira,
26, a transient from the Monterey
areaof theCentralCoast, andhewas
considered armed and dangerous,
the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s
Of ice said in an announcement on
Wednesday night.
After wounding the San Luis
Obispo County deputy in the small
city of Paso Robles, police believe
the shooter killed a transient and
then eluded an intense manhunt.
Police sought the public’s help and
released photos from surveillance
video showing the suspect — a
young dark-haired, bearded man.
The shooter opened ire
around 3.45am on the back side of
the police station in Paso Robles,
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff
Ian Parkinson said. Of icers were
inside at the time and windows
and a door were shot out but no
one was injured.
A
dispatcher
monitoring
security cameras saw the attack
unfold and called for help.
The deputy was struck while
responding and his partner
dragged him to safety and returned
ire, Parkinson said. The wounded
deputy was in serious but stable
condition with a bullet lodged in his
head, he said.
“We feel that this was an
ambush, that he planned it, that he
intended for of icers to come out
of the police department and to
assault them,” Parkinson said.
While searching for the suspect
investigators found the body of a
man near railroad tracks several
California deputy shot in ‘ambush’ attack at police station
blocks away. The 58-year-old,
unidenti ied transient was shot once
at close range in the back of the
head, police said.
Paso Robles is an unlikely spot
for such violence. The bustling
community 282 kilometres northwest
of Los Angeles is a tourist destination
on California’s Central Coast.
The violence came just ive days
after another unlikely location, the
community of Ben Lomond in Santa
Cruz County farther north on the
California coast, was the scene of an
ambush on police.
Santa Cruz sheriff’s Sergeant
Damon Gutzwiller, 38, was killed
and another deputy injured last
Saturday in an attack allegedly
carried out by an air force sergeant
armed with homemade bombs,
an AR¢15 ri le and other weapons.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart
said the suspect, Steven Carrillo,
was intent on killing of icers.
The FBI is investigating whether
Carrillo, 32, has links to the killing
of a federal security of icer who was
shot outside the US courthouse in
Oakland during a protest against
police brutality on May 29.
The FBI also is assisting the
San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles
departments with their investigation
of the shooting that left the two-year
deputy in serious condition.
“He’s not out of the woods, as
the doctors have explained to me,”
Parkinson said.
He said there’s no clear link
between the latest shooting and
the other two but that over time the
investigation could lead there.
Thedeputy,whowasnotidenti ied,
and his partner heard gun ire as they
approached the station and got out
of the car to search but didn’t see
the suspect “until they started taking
ire,” Parkinson said.
The deputy’s partner managed
to get him to safety behind a patrol
car. The wounded deputy was
conscious and managed to radio
that he’d been shot.
Parkinson said there was no
local event or imminent arrest that
might have prompted the violence.
He also said investigators didn’t
know if the attack was connected to
anger swelling nationwide at police
over the killing of George Floyd by
Minneapolis of icers.
He called Floyd’s death unjust
and horri ic.
PRAGUE (AP) — A man with
a knife attacked a school in
Slovakia yesterday, killing one
person and wounding at least
ive before he was killed by
police, authorities said.
The attack took place at
the United School in the town
of Vrutky in northwestern
Slovakia yesterday morning.
The establishment operates for
children from elementary age
up to high school. The victim
was the deputy director of the
high school, authorities said.
The attacker was identi ied
as a 22-year-old man from the
nearby town of Martin.
The Slovak rescue ser-
vice said three adults and
two students were treated
in a hospital in Martin but
didn’t
immediately
reveal
more details.
One dead in knife
attack at Slovak school;
attacker also dead
Police of icers at the scene of the crime in Vrutky, Slovakia.
PHOTO: AP