People arrive at the U.S. border from countries around the world: Eritrea, Guatemala, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ghana, Uzbekistan, and many more.
They seek asylum, claiming persecution due to their religion, sexuality, or political beliefs.
For generations, they had the chance to present their case to U.S. officials.
“They didn’t give us an ICE officer to talk to. They didn’t give us an interview. No one asked me what happened,” said a Russian election worker who sought asylum in the U.S. after being caught with video evidence of vote rigging. On Feb. 26, he was deported to Costa Rica with his wife and young son.
On Jan. 20, just after being sworn in for a second term, President Donald Trump suspended the asylum system as part of his broad crackdown on illegal immigration, issuing a series of executive orders aimed at stopping what he called the “invasion” of the United States.
What asylum seekers face now, according to lawyers, activists, and immigrants, is a confusing, ever-changing situation with few clear rules. People can be deported to countries they barely know after brief conversations with immigration officials, while others remain stuck in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Attorneys who regularly work with asylum seekers at the border say their phones have gone quiet since Trump took office. They believe many who cross are immediately expelled without a chance at asylum or are detained to await screening under the U.N.’s convention against torture, which has stricter qualifications than asylum.
“I don’t think it’s completely clear to anyone what happens when people show up and ask for asylum,” said Bella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council.
Migrants walk through Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, trying to reach the U.S. border on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, the day Trump was inaugurated. (AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)
Migrants walk through Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, trying to reach the U.S. border on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, the day Trump was inaugurated. (AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)
Restrictions face challenges in court
Courts are filled with lawsuits, appeals, and countersuits as the Trump administration faces activists arguing that these sweeping restrictions unlawfully put people fleeing persecution at risk.
A key legal battle is underway over whether courts can review the administration’s use of “invasion” claims to justify suspending asylum. No ruling date is set.
The government says its invasion declaration isn’t subject to judicial review, calling it “an unreviewable political question” at one point.
But rights groups fighting the asylum suspension, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, called the move “as unlawful as it is unprecedented” in a complaint filed in Washington, D.C.
Illegal border crossings, which surged during the early Biden administration, peaking at nearly 10,000 arrests per day in late 2023, dropped sharply in Biden’s final year and plunged even further after Trump returned to the White House.
Still, more than 200 people are arrested daily for illegally crossing the southern U.S. border.
Some of those arrested seek asylum, though no one really knows how many.
A migrant reception center that usually welcomed hundreds daily after crossing the Darien Gap now stands empty in Lajas Blancas, Panama, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A migrant reception center that usually welcomed hundreds daily after crossing the Darien Gap now stands empty in Lajas Blancas, Panama, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Paulina Reyes-Perrariz, managing attorney for the San Diego office of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said her office used to get 10 to 15 calls a day about asylum after Biden introduced restrictions in 2024.
Now, calls have dropped to almost none, with only a few since Jan. 20.
Plus, lawyers are uncertain how to handle asylum cases.
“It’s really difficult to consult and advise with individuals when we don’t know what the process is,” she said.
Doing ‘everything right’
The Russian man, who asked not to be named to avoid persecution if returned to Russia, never expected this.
“We felt betrayed,” the 36-year-old told The Associated Press. “We did everything right.”
His family followed the rules carefully. They moved to Mexico in May 2024, rented a cheap place near the California border, and waited nearly nine months for an asylum interview.
On Jan. 14, they were told their interview would be Feb. 2. On Jan. 20, it was canceled.
Moments after Trump took office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it had wiped the system used to schedule asylum interviews and canceled tens of thousands of appointments.
There was no appeal process.
The Russian family went to a San Diego border crossing to request asylum, where they were detained, he said.
Weeks later, they were among those handcuffed, shackled, and flown to Costa Rica. Only the children were left unchained.
Turning to other countries to hold deportees
The Trump administration has sped up deportations by using countries like Costa Rica and Panama as “bridges,” temporarily holding deportees while they await return to their home countries or third countries.
Earlier this year, about 200 migrants were deported from the U.S. to Costa Rica and roughly 300 to Panama.
To supporters of tighter immigration controls, the asylum system has long been abused by those making exaggerated claims of danger. In recent years, about one-third to half of asylum applications were approved by judges.
Even some pro-immigration politicians say the system faces too much abuse.
“People around the world have learned they can claim asylum and remain in the U.S. indefinitely to pursue their claims,” retired U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a longtime Democrat, wrote last year in the Wall Street Journal, defending Biden’s tougher asylum rules amid a surge of illegal immigration.
Colombian migrants look out from a Panamanian immigration bus transporting them from a migrant reception center in Lajas Blancas, after crossing the Darien Gap en route to the U.S. border, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
Colombian migrants look out from a Panamanian immigration bus transporting them from a migrant reception center in Lajas Blancas, after crossing the Darien Gap en route to the U.S. border, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
An uncertain future
Many immigrants who arrived with the Russian family have left the Costa Rican detention center where they were first held, but the family remains.
The man cannot imagine returning to Russia and has nowhere else to go.
He and his wife spend their days teaching Russian and a bit of English to their son. He organizes volleyball games to keep people occupied.
He doesn’t blame the U.S. He understands the administration’s push to crack down on illegal immigration. But he says he faces real danger. He followed the rules and can’t understand why he never got a chance to plead his case.
He battles despair daily, knowing that what he did in Russia brought his family to this point.
“I failed them,” he said. “I think that every day: I failed them.”
