With a border deal hanging in the balance and the Iowa caucuses a month away, Donald Trump amplified his attack on immigrants at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday.
“They’re poisoning the blood of our country,” the former president said. “They’ve poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Not just in South America, not just the three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world they’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia.”
While in the White House, Trump sought to deter immigration by building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, building some 450 miles of fencing along the nearly 2,000-mile border, much of which replaced existing barriers. In addition to strict border security measures, his administration also implemented a travel ban for people from several predominantly Muslim countries.
Wrong. Entry for the purposes of seeking asylum is protected under international law: ""Under international law, it is not illegal to seek asylum. Article 14(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that ‘everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution’.
Article 31 of the Refugees Convention, states that it is legal to enter a country for the purposes of seeking asylum. Article 31 further provides that signatory states should not impose penalties for entering illegally.
The Refugees Convention recognises a right to enter a country for the purposes of seeking asylum, regardless of how people arrive or whether they hold valid travel or identity documents."