VOA常速英语:特朗普坚持强硬的移民政策立场

To address what it calls the humanitarian migrant crisis at the border, Trump administration is asking Congress for an additional 4.5 billion dollars for emergency funding. Given the scale of what we’re facing, we’ll exhaust our resources before this fiscal year. Earlier this week, the Trump administration again raised questions about the motives of many asylum seekers, individuals who claim they’re fleeing war violence or political prosecution. Not every claim is credible. Some claims are credible, and we don’t want those who have a credible claim of a fear and asylum to be hamstrung in the process by those who don’t because they’re lying about it.

In 2018, 65,000 people applied for asylum, many at the US-Mexico border. To stem the rising numbers of asylum seekers, Trump has given officials 90 days to come up with new regulations to tighten existing requirements. Proposals include making it harder for those who enter the country illegally to obtain work permits and to charge asylum seekers a fee, a move that is legal but has never been done before.
Most people understand that refugees and asylum seekers are very vulnerable populations, and they usually flee their countries without any money. The administration cites humanitarian concerns for its policies, but scholars say since Trump took office, they’ve seen a deeper divide on the issue. There’s one side that believes that there is in fact a lot of persecution out there, and the United States have an obligation to sort of protect people which we did do during World War II where there’s other people who feel like this is a system that’s been taken advantage of, and in some ways that particular loophole, if you will, at least the claim goes, should be cut off.
Trump who ran and won in 2016 on a platform of being tough on immigration is gearing up for a reelection in 2020. He is trying to follow through at any cost on some of the campaign promises that he made for the base that he’s appealing to. Although Trump’s additional emergency request will not include money to build the border wall, his signature campaign promise, it’s still unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled House without changes. Meanwhile, his asylum proposals are expected to be challenged in court. Patsy Widakuswara, VOA News, at the White House.