Deep Dive: Trump’s Asylum Ban and the U.S.-Mexico Border

On January 20, 2025, the Trump administration implemented an “asylum ban” that dramatically eroded the right to seek asylum in the United States. The ban, a central component of President Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, has had profound consequences since it went into effect.

Nowhere is the harmful and far-reaching impact of the ban more apparent than along the 1,954 mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. Although the right to seek asylum is a moral and legal obligation of the U.S., this administration has blocked thousands of individuals fleeing persecution and torture from entering the country to seek protection. As a result, the ban has placed the lives of these individuals at great risk by expelling them back to harm and danger.

Read on to learn more about the consequences of the asylum ban.

What is asylum and the asylum ban?

International and domestic law are unambiguous: the government is obligated to provide access to asylum to people fleeing persecution or torture once they are physically in the U.S., regardless of how they entered the country. After an individual is detained at the border, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are required to quickly assess the individual’s fear of returning to their country before they are placed in removal proceedings or expedited removal. During removal proceedings, an immigration judge conducts a hearing and either grants or denies asylum to the individual. If the person is placed in expedited removal, they must affirmatively state their fear of returning to their home country, and an officer should provide them with a “credible fear screening”.

But this system, required by law, no longer exists. Immediately upon taking office for a second term, Trump signed a proclamation that banned all individuals from seeking asylum along the border and empowered CBP officials to “repel, repatriate, or remove” them from the U.S. People no longer have an opportunity to claim fear of return. Invoking inflammatory rhetoric to denigrate all asylum seekers, the president justified his asylum ban to protect the public health and national security of the U.S. against an “invasion.”

Within a matter of days, three non-profit organizations on the border filed a lawsuit in a D.C. federal court challenging the ban. On April 24, 2026, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the asylum ban was unlawful. The Trump administration has now asked the Supreme Court to review the case, but the Court has yet to make a decision on whether it will hear it or let the lower court ruling stand.

What has been the impact of the asylum ban on the border so far?

The impact of the ban on the border cannot be overstated. The administration’s enforcement through militarization and increased CBP personnel along 1,954 miles of the border has blocked individuals from exercising their right to seek asylum. In the initial months after the proclamation, the number of people attempting to enter the country has decreased by over 87% and remains at historically low numbers. Ports of entry have also been closed to people seeking protection and CBP offices have boasted that not a single person has been released at the border in 16 months, meaning that anyone not turned away has been placed in detention.

Conditions are equally dreadful for people, including families and children, who manage to enter the country. Reports indicate they are frequently and unlawfully denied screenings by CBP officials despite their credible claims of fear of persecution or torture. Held in cramped facilities, they lack access to counsel and are deprived of any sense of due process.

“Families and adults are being held in increasingly dire conditions. Alarming reports from within ICE detention centers include assaults, medical neglect, lack of edible food, and other dehumanizing conditions,” said Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, Director of Policy and Advocacy at HIAS. “By detaining people in horrific conditions and threatening to deport them to countries they have never lived in, the U.S. is using fear and inhumane treatment to deter asylum seekers. This makes the process of seeking safety just as dangerous as the persecution asylum seekers fled.”

These “third country” removals or expulsions from the border not only undermine the legal protections of asylum but have left thousands stranded in dangerous and precarious living conditions in unfamiliar locations abroad.

How can we protect the right to seek asylum in the United States?

The denial of the human right to seek asylum should be a moral shock to the conscience — yet it is happening largely out of public view. HIAS has long advocated for the rights and dignity of asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border and decried the harsh treatment of people seeking safety. This policy, part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to erode legal and humanitarian protections, is one in a relentless series of attacks on immigrant communities. We believe these policies threaten the rule of law and jeopardize countless lives.

Now is the time to advocate for smart, lawful, and humane policies that rise to the challenge of forced displacement. The right to seek asylum is, indeed, a right — and it must be protected. Join us in taking action for asylum seekers and other immigrants in the U.S.

Originally published on May 30, 2025. Updated on October 12, 2026.