Attorney General William Barr said that the US is a generous country but is being completely overwhelmed by the burdens associated with apprehending and processing hundreds of thousands of migrants at the southern border. He said the rule is aimed at economic migrants and those who seek to exploit the US asylum system to obtain entry to the country.

The US rule states that with limited exceptions, an alien who enters or attempts to enter the US across the southern border after failing to apply for protection in a third country outside the alien’s country of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful habitual residence through which the alien transited en route to the US is ineligible for asylum.