TUCSON—Yesterday, Attorney General William Barr issued an order that would prohibit some asylum seekers from posting bail—keeping them in detention indefinitely until their asylum hearings. The ruling does not apply to asylum seekers who seek asylum at the ports of entry, but those who are apprehended while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. In response, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva issued the following statement:

“Indefinitely detaining asylum seekers for months or years is yet another cruel chapter in the Trump Administration’s quest to deny due process and basic human rights to those seeking refuge from violence. Each passing day, the Trump Administration erodes the little semblance of humanity left in our immigration policy. With this decision, Attorney General Barr effectively rolled back 14 years of Board of Immigration Appeals precedent, and replaced it with something that will only worsen the current situation. Immigration court should not be subject to the ideological whims of the Trump Administration, but instead function separately and independently from the Department of Justice.”