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The best way to understand this Trump administration’s immigration policy is as a giant race to deport as many people as possible. Standing in the way of that goal is a complex series of laws and procedures aimed at adjudicating which asylum-seekers (and others) have a legitimate claim to stay. From literally Day 1, this administration has sought to undermine that system with an “Everyone* Must Go” mentality. Today the administration took another major step toward that goal.

*Unless you’re white; we’ll get to that.

That’s ominous. What is this new policy?

As of today, the administration is making it easier to move asylum-seekers’ cases directly into deportation proceedings, the Washington Post reports. Specifically, hundreds of thousands of people (or about one-third of asylum cases pending before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) could see their applications rerouted to the Justice Department’s immigration courts. For many, this change means a fast track to deportation, as—due to other Trump-era changes—those judges can now dismiss certain cases without a hearing.

How is that different from the previous policy?

Provided they entered the U.S. legally and were not charged with any other immigration violation, anyone seeking asylum is supposed to have the opportunity to make their case to a trained asylum officer. Now many people,........

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