Comment by ElevenLathe
12 hours ago
Why fill out the right paperwork and actually attend your court dates and immigration hearings if there is a good chance that will result in your extraordinary rendition to some torture prison God-only-knows-where? Much safer to simply stay off the books.
Well ideally you're supposed to have a valid visa before you cross the border. I don't like the idea of the government promising people a path to amnesty and then going back on its word because there's a new administration in town but ultimately the people they're nabbing are in this situation because they already have invalid visas so I don't think it follows that this would discourage people from obtaining visas like they were supposed to have already done.
To obtain asylum through the affirmative asylum process you must be physically present in the United States. You may apply for asylum regardless of how you arrived in the United States or your current immigration status.[1]
[1] https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-and-asylum/asylu...