The Trump administration announced Tuesday a change to the asylum application process in the United States, a reform presented as a simplification but which could accelerate the deportation of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers.

With this new tightening of the screws by the American executive on immigration, asylum applications can now be sent directly to immigration judges without a prior interview with an immigration services officer.

The current system, which allows these two reviews of the file, "allows foreigners to try to have a second chance with asylum," the Ministry of Internal Security denounced in a statement.

The new provisions "will shorten the total time spent by asylum officers and immigration judges ruling on asylum applications," the ministry further emphasizes.

Up to 444,724 people whose procedure is underway "could be affected" by this new regulation, out of the nearly 1.5 million cases currently under review, the ministry specifies.

"The American asylum system exists to protect people who genuinely fear persecution," said Joseph Edlow, director of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the department agency responsible for asylum claims.

The reform announced Tuesday, effective immediately, will "ensure that resources are devoted to the rapid processing of these requests, rather than to those of people who seek to use the system as a loophole" by remaining in the territory while waiting for a final decision, he added, quoted in the press release.

Re-elected to the White House on the promise of a tougher immigration policy, Donald Trump and his government have multiplied measures in this direction and have conducted a massive deportation campaign of undocumented immigrants living in the United States.