Washington, July 15 (RHC)-- The Trump administration decreed broad changes to U.S. asylum policies Monday, a move aimed at slowing the influx of Central Americans crossing the Mexico border seeking refuge.

A joint statement from the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department says authorities will sharply restrict access to the nation’s asylum system for anyone who did not seek protection from other countries before crossing the southern border.

The new rule, published in the Federal Register and set to take effect Tuesday, would bar asylum claims from anyone who has passed through another country en route to the U.S., which essentially would cover anyone other than Mexican residents, who make up a small fraction of asylum applicants.

Critics say the proposed changes are an attempt to rescind core principles of U.S. immigration law that protect vulnerable asylum seekers from being sent back to persecution in their homelands or other countries. The administration said it will publish an “interim final rule” Tuesday that will promptly take effect.

The rule would, in effect, nearly wipe out U.S. asylum law, which establishes a legal right to claim protection for anyone who arrives at the U.S. border and can make a case that they face torture or persecution at home. The law applies regardless of how a migrant reaches the border.

Lee Gelernt, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who has been contesting Trump administration immigration policies in court, said the organization will seek an injunction to block the policy’s implementation, arguing that it is inconsistent with U.S. and international law.

“The administration is effectively trying to end asylum at the southern border,” Gelernt  told the Washington Post.