US President Donald Trump has directed his administration to charge fees for asylum claims, and handle cases within 180 days, the White House said in a statement Monday night.
The announcement came as Trump blasted what he described as the United States' "weak, ineffective and dangerous" immigration laws on Twitter.
The memo outlined other changes, including charging asylum seekers to file work permit applications and barring people who enter the US illegally, or attempt to, from receiving temporary work permits before being approved for relief.
"The purpose of this memorandum is to strengthen asylum procedures to safeguard our system against rampant abuse of our asylum process," it reads, reported CNN.
Advertisement
It says that the Attorney General and Homeland Security Secretary are to take action within 90 days and also directed officials to revoke the work permits of immigrants who receive final deportation orders.
The Department of Justice oversees the nation's immigration courts.
Trump has repeatedly railed against the nation's immigration system, accusing migrants of taking advantage of what he's deemed legal loopholes.
The order came two weeks after Attorney General, Bill Barr directed immigration judges, to no longer allow asylum seekers apprehended after entering the country illegally to post bail, according to the US media reports.
Trump has staked his presidency on his insistence that the United States is being overrun by migrants and asylum seekers.
Advertisement
But opponents, mostly in the Democratic Party, say his push for building more barriers on the Mexican border and his almost daily denunciations of migrants as dangerous criminals incite racial hatred.
The president declared an emergency to bypass Congress, and unlock billions of dollars in funding for his controversial wall project, and has also deployed troops to the border with Mexico.
(With inputs from agencies)
