RESOLVING THE LEDGER
This is one outlet's own report from Vox — the article as it was filed. Other outlets are covering the same event; open the full story to compare every source side by side.
See the full story · 2 sources
An immigration court sign is seen as federal agents patrol the halls of the Ted Weiss Federal Building in New York City on May 12, 2026. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Welcome to The Logoff: The Trump administration is further limiting due process for asylum-seekers in the US.
What’s happening? On Tuesday, the administration issued a rule changing how some asylum requests are handled. Under the new policy, immigrants in more than 444,000 asylum cases could be denied the chance to speak with an asylum officer and claim asylum, which requires them to have experienced persecution, or the threat of persecution, in their home country because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or another characteristic.
Instead, those immigrants would be redirected to immigration judges — who could order their deportation without any additional process.
The change, according to the administration, is intended to help clear a substantial backlog in the US asylum system, which has 1.4 million cases currently pending. But it fits a pattern by the Trump administration of dramatically curtailing access to asylum in the US.
What’s the context? Under the second Trump administration, many previous immigration judges have been forced out or fired from their roles. Their replacements, as Bloomberg reported earlier this year , are minimally trained and instructed to deny most asylum claims outright.
What’s the big picture? The Trump administration also has a long record of sending immigrants back into dangerous situations in their home countries, or even to countries to which they have no connection.
Last year, as my colleague Ian Millhiser reported , the Supreme Court effectively allowed the administration to nullify the Convention Against Torture and send immigrants to war-torn countries like South Sudan .
And those deportations are poised to get worse: In June, the Court also cleared the way for Trump to end temporary protected status for immigrants from Haiti and Syria , without consideration of procedural rules. Now, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is reportedly preparing to target hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the US for deportation, even though the island nation is dealing with serious and widespread gang violence .
And with that, it’s time to log off…
Want to spend less time on social media? Here’s some excellent advice from my colleague Constance Grady, available here with a gift link .
Thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
AIPROPX is an independent multi-source news index — we track, compare, and connect coverage from across the web into one place you won't find anywhere else.