The Trump administration is working on a new plan to expedite the rejection of certain asylum applications in the U.S. without requiring interviews with the applicants. This is according to internal documents accessed by CBS News.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering regulations that would empower officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to reject asylum applications filed more than a year after the applicant’s arrival in the U.S. This could be done without the usual interview if the officer determines the case does not meet certain exceptions.
According to current U.S. immigration law, an application for asylum is typically barred if it is filed a year after entering the U.S. However, exceptions exist for situations like serious medical conditions or inadequate legal advice. Unaccompanied minors are also exempt from this deadline.
The proposed regulation would allow USCIS officers to proceed with an interview if the applicant meets one of these exemptions. Despite this, the new rule could fundamentally alter USCIS’s approach of generally interviewing all applicants before reaching a decision. It would facilitate rapid dismissals when the application records imply the applicants missed the one-year deadline.
A USCIS spokesperson stated the administration is exploring various tactics to handle over a million backlogged asylum claims. These backlogs have been attributed to past policies perceived as lax regarding border security. Deficient applications, according to the spokesperson, would be sent to immigration courts, enabling claimants to present their cases directly to a judge.
Conchita Cruz, an immigration lawyer and co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, voiced concerns about this potential rule. Cruz argued it might wrongfully place applicants into deportation processes without letting them elucidate why their applications were delayed beyond the one-year threshold. She mentioned possible reasons for delayed filings, such as individuals living in the U.S. temporarily on different visas.
U.S. laws currently permit most individuals on American soil, even those entering illegally, to apply for asylum. To gain asylum, applicants must prove they face persecution due to race, religion, nationalism, political beliefs, or belonging to a particular social group. Successful asylum applicants may live permanently in the U.S., while denied applicants face deportation.
An accumulation of asylum cases has hampered the federal system’s ability to process these claims swiftly. Both Republican and Democratic leaders have pointed to this bottleneck, suggesting that it encourages economic migrants to use the asylum system despite not qualifying.
USCIS had 1.5 million pending asylum applications last fall, while the Justice Department’s immigration courts, overseeing deportation cases, had 3.3 million pending claims as of March. Of these, 2.3 million involved asylum requests.
As a part of its strategy to enhance deportations, the Trump administration initiated various actions to limit asylum claims and deport asylum-seekers. Some initiatives include agreements to send asylum-seekers to ‘safe third countries,’ which may have questionable human rights conditions, to seek refuge there instead.
An additional measure was freezing USCIS-managed asylum cases. This freeze followed a Washington, D.C. incident involving an Afghan asylum grantee linked to violence. Although partially lifted, restrictions remain for citizens of countries listed in the Trump administration’s “travel ban.”