The administration of US President Donald Trump is preparing a sweeping proposal to overhaul the international asylum system, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters.
The plan, expected to be unveiled at the UN General Assembly later this month, would abolish the current post–World War II framework and replace it with a mechanism requiring asylum seekers to file claims in the first country they reach, rather than in a country of their choosing.
It also proposes making refugee status temporary, granting host states the right to periodically reassess conditions in the country of origin to determine whether return is possible.
A State Department spokesperson said the initiative aims to curb the “abuse of the asylum system for economic migration,” echoing language in the documents that described migration as a “defining challenge of the 21st century.”
In response, Mark Hetfield, president of refugee resettlement agency HIAS, warned that the change could roll back protections “to the pre-international refugee regime era.”
At the same time, the Trump administration is considering lowering the annual refugee admissions ceiling to 40,000–60,000, with potential priority given to Europeans persecuted for their political views.
