Trump administration has a new trick to speed up deporting asylum seekers

Trump administration has a new trick to speed up deporting asylum seekers Asylum applicants could be forced into hostile immigration courts before they’ve even been interviewed under new DHS rule - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Hundreds of thousands of people seeking asylum in the U.S. could soon be forced to have their cases heard in courtrooms run by Donald Trump’s administration. The Department of Homeland Security will allow the government to send asylum seekers directly to immigration court without first receiving an intake interview about their applications, raising the risk of immigration judges throwing out their cases and making them immediately vulnerable to arrest and removal. Under the new rule, instead of first appearing for an interview with an immigration officer, people who say they are fleeing persecution could face an uphill battle of explaining why they need urgent humanitarian protections in courtrooms that have become increasingly hostile to such asylum claims. Administration officials say the change, which takes effect Tuesday (July 28), is designed to reduce a backlog of roughly 1.4 million pending asylum cases. But immigrant advocacy groups say it violates due process rights to speed up the president’s campaign to arrest and remove millions of people from the country. “The impact of this rule could be disastrous for people in need of safety,” said Beth Oppenheim, president and CEO of refugee advocacy group HIAS. “It makes it easier for the government to deport people back to situations they fled, where they could face real danger or death. That is wrong, it is dangerous, and the United States continues to erode the role it once played as a leader in standing up for those who need it the most,” Oppenheim said. U.S. Customs and Immigration Services officers handle applications for immigrants who are not in the middle of the deportation process. But immigration judges, who work under the Department of Justice, oversee cases involving people who are in removal proceedings. Under the new rule, those asylum officers could send certain asylum applicants directly immigration judges, who can place them in removal proceedings. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Congress earlier this year that the agency plans to deport 1 million people in 2026 and 2027 and hold at least 99,000 people on any given day in detention centers. Homeland Security argues there was never a “statutory right to an interview or a requirement to conduct one.” “Through the rule, USCIS is also able to more quickly identify aliens that pose a danger to public safety or national security and place those aliens in removal proceedings, where his or her claim for asylum or other forms of relief can be more appropriately heard in an adversarial setting by an [immigration judge],” according to the agency. “For far too long the asylum system has been exploited for purposes of delay and work authorization, not legitimate claims of protection,” Trump-appointed USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a statement Monday. “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 added. The rule change follows the administration’s sweeping changes to immigration courts and the cases that often appear inside of them. More than 100 immigration judges have been fired or forced out over the last year, and dozens of other judges have also retired or resigned. At the same time, the administration has boasted about bringing on more than 100 judges to replace them. Last year, the Trump administration ordered immigration judges to dismiss virtually any case when immigrants show up for their court-mandated hearings — making them immediately vulnerable to arrest and removal before they’ve had a chance to appeal. The administration has also instructed immigration court judges to deny bond to immigrants, upending decades of precedent and keeping people in detention for weeks or months no matter how long they have lived in the country or whether they have a criminal record. Those policy shifts sparked scenes of masked agents patrolling courthouse hallways and hauling away immigrants who were then placed in fast-tracked removal proceedings in what critics called “ambush”-style arrests that violated due process protections. A federal judge has banned the practice in New York City’s immigration courts. Last month, a federal judge determined the administration illegally discriminated against “countless” immigrants by categorically barring asylum seekers, green card applicants and people seeking citizenship “solely by the happenstance of their birth,” according to a federal judge. The administration unlawfully used national security concerns that “mask anti-immigrant sentiments” to justify a sweeping set of immigration policies that have left “countless” immigrants in legal limbo, according to U.S. District Judge John McConnell. His ruling struck down four policies that have been used to block asylum, delay or deny green card applications and citizenship hearings for nationals of roughly 40 countries. Oppenheim says the Trump administration’s latest asylum rule “continues to show the disconnect between the country we have been — a strong voice for those seeking safety — and the country we are becoming today.” Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments [Image text:] United States Depart CUTIVE OFFICE FOR IN IMMIGRATIO EASE COURT POLICE ERO MOE