The Justice Department is proposing a major overhaul of the U.S. asylum system, long abused by illegal immigrants seeking a free ticket into the United States.
In a 161-page blueprint, the department proposed a plan to reduce the types of claims immigrants can make and would allow immigration judges to make a quick decision instead of setting up hearings in the backlogged system.
The move, out for a 30-day public review, is aimed at ending the asylum free pass system. Asylum claims have soared in recent years because immigrants, and immigration lawyers, have used loopholes to enter the country. Once in, most immigrants never appear for their hearings.
Immigration reform advocates embraced the new proposals.
“This proposed rule is a critical and desperately needed correction to our long-abused asylum process, which is now the weakest link in our border security system,” said Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.
“It doesn’t matter how great a wall we have and how great a job the Border Patrol does if anyone literally can just walk up to or across the line, claim a fear of return and eventually get released into the country, receive a work permit, and game the immigration court system to be able to stay for years without fear of deportation, whether they actually apply for asylum or not,” she explained.
President Trump has long decried the asylum system and urged changes. He has often cited a 1,700% increase in asylum claims in the last decade. In 2018, he said, “Think of that. Think of that. We’re a great country, but you can’t do that. Smugglers know how the system works. They game the system; they game it.”
Instead of an automatic entry into the country to wait for an asylum hearing, in which most applicants lose, the new rules will speed it up. What’s more, those with credible claims will see a faster resolution of their cases.
“The result will be that the opportunists and fraudsters will be screened out earlier, while meritorious claims will be reviewed much more quickly. This will be a system we can again be proud of and which will enable us to offer safe haven to people who really need it,” said Vaughan.
What’s more, she said, the proposal will put new restrictions on immigrants misusing claims they will be tortured if they return home, which reform advocates said is a claim often used by criminals.
“The new rule addresses a new loophole that has been exploited more due to earlier Trump reforms — the so-called CAT (Convention Against Torture) claims. This is the last-ditch claim deportable aliens, especially criminals, will try to make to prolong their case and avoid deportation. They claim they will be tortured upon return. The government needs to be able to prevent deportees, usually criminals, from pulling this card just to prolong their case. This rule will narrow use of that potential escape hatch,” she said.
