The Trump administration is proposing sweeping, permanent changes to the U.S. asylum process that would make it more difficult for refugees seeking admission to the country, according to a statement from the Justice and Homeland Security departments.
The late Wednesday announcement states the proposed changes “would allow the departments to more effectively separate baseless claims from meritorious ones” and “ensure groundless claims do not delay or divert resources from deserving claims.”
In a 161-page document, the departments said they will introduce next Monday plans to speed up the legal process by raising the standards migrants must meet when making an initial “credible fear” claim about returning home. The plan also gives federal immigration judges more discretion in tossing out cases in the early stages that they deem “frivolous.”
The new standards will match the process for making an initial claim with more rigorous standards that are outlined in the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
Asylum seekers, or refugees, would have to prove more fully that they would be tortured or persecuted if they are turned away from the United States. The proposal will also curtail some of the reasons one can claim asylum.
The new rules are less amicable to migrants who have traveled through another country before seeking refuge in the U.S., as hundreds of thousands of Central Americans did in fiscal year 2018 — illegally crossing into the U.S. or applying for asylum at ports of entry. Since 2017, the U.S. has been the world’s top destination for asylum seekers.
The proposed changes are not related to the coronavirus pandemic and would take effect in mid-July. Asylum seekers were separately prohibited from seeking refuge at U.S. borders under a guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that said doing so could pose health concerns amid the pandemic.
Under an existing Trump administration policy, tens of thousands of asylum seekers were returned to the Mexican side of the southern border to wait for weeks to months for asylum hearings in tent courts on the U.S. side. Nearly all asylum hearings have been postponed as a result of the CDC guidance. More than 1 million immigration cases are waiting to be decided by less than 500 immigration judges.
