The Bible says to welcome refugees

The Trump administration will stop accepting asylum applications from migrants who could have claimed asylum in a different country before entering the U.S., it announced on July 15.

The new interim immigration rule upends a 60-year-old policy that protects refugees from war, political persecution and targeted violence. Central Americans – hundreds of thousands of whom cross Mexico each year – will now be barred from applying for asylum when they reach the U.S.

Only refugees who applied for and were denied asylum in a “safe third country” – in practice, Mexico – may then apply to the U.S. for protection.

View the complete July 17 article by Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross on the Conversation website here.