US changes asylum rules to cut backlog

Washington, July 28 (IANS): The Trump administration has changed the US asylum system to allow immigration officials to send certain applications directly to immigration judges without first interviewing applicants, a move the government says will reduce a large backlog but immigrant advocates say will weaken due process.

The interim final rule allows US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to refer affirmative asylum applications to immigration judges without conducting an initial interview. The Department of Homeland Security said the rule would take effect immediately and that USCIS would accept public comments before issuing a final version.

Affirmative asylum applications are filed by people who are not in removal proceedings. USCIS currently handles those cases. Immigration judges at the Department of Justice decide defensive asylum applications filed by people already facing removal.

Depending on an applicant’s immigration status, USCIS generally decides the application or refers it to an immigration judge for a fresh review. DHS said the existing process can effectively give an applicant a second opportunity to seek asylum.

The department said bypassing the USCIS interview in some cases would shorten the time needed for asylum officers and immigration judges to decide applications.

“For far too long the asylum system has been exploited for purposes of delay and work authorization, not legitimate claims of protection,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said.

“America’s asylum system exists to protect individuals who genuinely fear persecution and this rule will help ensure that resources are directed to the timely adjudication of those claims instead of to those seeking to use the system as a loophole,” he said.

DHS General Counsel James Percival blamed delays on undocumented immigrants and their lawyers.

“One of the greatest barriers to effective immigration enforcement is intentional delay by illegal aliens and the open borders attorneys who represent them,” Percival said. “My office works every day with the immigration components of DHS to improve efficiency and fulfil the President’s mandate. The rule would do just that.”

FWD.us, an immigration advocacy organisation, said the regulation marked a sharp departure from decades of USCIS practice. It said the change would also remove a requirement for referral letters sent to immigration judges to include an assessment of an applicant’s credibility.

The group said implementing the measure as an interim final rule would bypass the usual notice-and-comment process. It described the decision as “deeply alarming and harmful” and said it would deny asylum applicants basic due process.

The change comes as hundreds of thousands of people await decisions affecting Temporary Protected Status. FWD.us said protections for Haiti and Syria could end soon following a Supreme Court decision, while court orders have paused terminations involving Burma, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.