The Trump administration has set its eyes on a new target: Palestinians, who under a new directive will now be subject to heightened scrutiny when applying for asylum, according to leaked documents obtained by the Washington Post.
The outlet obtained an internal email from the Department of Homeland Security that advised staff within the agency’s asylum office to “be on the lookout for Palestinian cases,” regardless of whether applicants actually reside in Palestine, so long as they “otherwise affirmatively [identify] as Palestinian.” Those cases would then be “diverted for an additional review to the quality-assurance office,” the Washington Post found and reported on Saturday.
Lawyers who spoke with the Washington Post said the new directive was unprecedented, particularly given its broad application to an entire ethnic group.
“As a lawyer and a former asylum officer, I have never seen this applied to a nationality or a people group in this manner,” said Brian Manning, founder of Political Asylum Lawyers and a former asylum officer, speaking with the Washington Post. “It’s a big deal because this has never happened before for a specific identity group or nationality.”
The Homeland Security email reviewed by the Washington Post was dated Aug. 14, which would coincide with State Department’s halting of all Visas for people from Gaza, a move announced through social media, and after pressure from a highly-influential right-wing influencer.
The influencer was Laura Loomer, who wields a “breathtaking influence” over the Trump administration, despite not holding any form of public office. Loomer, a self-described “proud Islamophobe,” raged online after learning that a nonprofit organization was assisting injured Gazans visit the United States to seek emergency medical care.
“Why are any Islamic invaders coming into the US under the Trump admin?” she wrote in a social media post on X on Aug. 15. Just hours after Loomer’s posts criticizing the State Department, the agency announced its pausing of all Visas for Gazans, an announcement that led to Loomer taking credit for having “saved so many American citizens from being killed by pro-Hamas jihadis."
Now, with all Palestinians seeking asylum being subject to additional review by the State Department, immigration lawyers are crying foul.
“[A] blanket policy on sending anyone who is ethnically Palestinian to a quality assurance offices appears to be another attack on Palestinian identity and voices,” said Marty Rosenbluth, a Georgia-based immigration lawyer, speaking with the Washington Post.
Ban Al-Wardi, another immigration lawyer based in California, said that “at minimum,” the new directive would impose additional delays for Palestinians seeking escape from Israel’s ongoing siege on Gaza, which has killed a minimum of 65,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of them women and children, though some estimates have put the death toll as high as 680,000, such as one recent study from Australian academics Richard Hil and Gideon Polya.
“If DHS is sending all asylum cases of Palestinians for further processing, solely based on their identity, then this is disparate treatment,” Al-Wardi said. “We don’t know what the directive means yet but at the minimum it will mean more delays for Palestinian asylum seekers.”