The Trump administration said Monday it will end asylum protections for most migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border in a major escalation of the president’s battle to tamp down immigration.

According to a new rule published in the Federal Register, asylum seekers who pass through another country first will be ineligible for asylum at the U.S. southern border. The rule, expected to go into effect Tuesday, also applies to children who have crossed the border alone.

The rule applies to anyone arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. Sometimes asylum seekers from Africa, Cuba or Haiti and other continents arrive there, but the vast majority of migrants arriving recently come from Central America.

The move by President Donald Trump’s administration, even if blocked by the courts, is reversing decades of U.S. policy on how refugees are treated and marks an escalation even compared to other hardline efforts meant to choke off the flow of people from poor and war torn nations.

Meanwhile, many undocumented immigrants are still on edge after the Trump administration announced ICE raids in 10 major cities, including Los Angeles. The raids were supposed to start yesterday, but so far there have been no reported arrests in the L.A. area. 

Larry speaks with experts to parse through the latest news.

With files from the Associated Press

Guests:

Cindy Carcamo, reporter covering immigration issues for the Los Angeles Times; she tweets

Robyn Barnard, staff attorney in the Los Angeles office of Human Rights First, a human rights nonprofit working to provide representation and advocate for asylum-seekers; she tweets at

Claude Arnold, a consultant at Frontier Solutions, a crisis management firm based in Washington, D.C.; he is also a retired Special Agent In Charge with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for over a decade, holding various roles at the agency including overseeing all aspects of ICE investigative mission in the L.A. area and in Southern Nevada