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The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security (DOJ, DHS, or collectively, the Departments) are adopting an interim final rule governing asylum claims in the context of aliens who enter or attempt to enter the United States across the southern border after failing to apply for protection from persecution or torture while in a third country through which they transited by land en route to the United States.  Pursuant to statutory authority, the Departments are amending their respective regulations to provide that, with limited exceptions, aliens who enter or attempt to enter the United States across the southern border after failing to apply for protection in a country through which they transited en route to the United States are ineligible for asylum. This basis for asylum ineligibility applies only prospectively to aliens who enter or arrive in the United States on or after the effective date of this rule. The regulations would ensure that aliens in this category who establish a reasonable fear of persecution or torture could seek withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) or protection from removal under regulations implementing U.S. obligations under Article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).