This report examines the background of and the newest developments in U.S. asylum policy in relation to Haitian, Central American, and Vietnamese refugees. The following background areas are explored: (1) the change in policy to stop the influx of asylum seekers; and (2) internal policy debate at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Justice Department. The following aspects of the new restrictive INS policy operations are explored: (1) the immediate impact, in December 1988, on south Texas; (2) the effects of the January 1989 Temporary Restraining Order in Miami (Florida); (3) the effects of lifting the Temporary Restraining Order and instituting a new procedure for detention and deportation of undocumented aliens in south Texas, in February 1989; and (4) the asylum adjudication process. The following aspects of the detention process are explored: (1) prisons versus shelters; (2) the isolation of the Webb County Detention Center outside Laredo (Texas); (3) the Correctional Corporation of America's contract facility in Laredo; and (4) Orantes-Hernandez v. Meese, a legal ruling preventing INS abuses of the asylum policy. The following topics concerning the interdiction and detention of Haitians are explored: (1) the circumvention of due process; and (2) the Krome Detention Center in Florida. The following problems with U.S. asylum policy are criticized: (1) the fallacy of treating asylum as an immigration problem; (2) the persecution of specific immigration populations; and (3) the civil strife that biased policies may cause. Three graphs are included. (JS)