Tuesday 30 December 2025 – 12:15 AM
A US regulation finally passed during the Covid-19 pandemic in President Donald Trump’s first term could allow asylum claims to be rejected on the basis of public health concerns, according to Reuters.
The United States may reject asylum requests citing health risks under a Trump-era regulation
The regulation came into effect on Wednesday, and gives US authorities the power to deny asylum in cases of public health emergencies resulting from infectious diseases, according to a copy published in the Federal Register.
Although the new restrictions will not have an immediate impact, they provide an additional tool for the Trump administration to confront asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. This comes at a time when the number of immigrants caught crossing the border illegally has fallen to its lowest levels in decades, after immigration policies have been tightened since Trump took office in January.
During the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Trump administration used a health law known as Section 42 to quickly return migrants to Mexico, under the pretext of limiting the spread of the virus. These restrictions continued until 2023 under former President Joe Biden, due to legal challenges that hindered their repeal.
For their part, human rights defenders criticized the reliance on health emergencies to reject asylum requests on a large scale, considering that American law has been used to achieve political goals related to tightening immigration.
Sarah Pierce, director of immigration policy at the Third Way Group, said the broad powers the regulation gives the administration, combined with stringent immigration enforcement, could lead to overuse and abuse of this tool.
It is noteworthy that the Biden administration postponed the effective date of this regulation five times, but did not cancel it, and the new procedure is not limited to asylum only, but also allows the rejection of another form of legal protection known as a stay of deportation.
