The rule, proposed in August, attracted more than 5,000 public reactions. Many immigration lawyers expressed concern about rushing migrants through the process and denying them a fair trial. If the migrant fails the credible fear interview, an immigration judge will review the case. If the migrant is not granted asylum after a more substantive conversation with an official, the case is automatically sent to an immigration judge for review, which some conservatives fear will delay deportation of migrants who do not qualify for asylum.
The new asylum application system will be used for migrants placed in what is called “accelerated removal”, a processing lane established in a 1996 law for undocumented migrants that gives immigration officials the power to deport people without a hearing or a lawyer in certain circumstances.
In the accelerated removal process, border officials are asking migrants if they are afraid of returning to their own country. Migrants who say they have a fear of returning are scheduled for a “credible fear” interview by an asylum officer.
So far, migrants who passed the “credible fear” interview joined the thousands of others who waited years to appear before an immigration judge and apply for official asylum. But under the new plan, migrants who pass the initial screening will then present their cases to an asylum officer, a process seen as far less confrontational than going to court and facing prosecutors.
Still, some immigration attorneys have expressed concerns about the management of asylum cases through the expedited removal process, which they say has long been flawed because it allows border officials — not immigration judges — to issue removal orders in situations where a migrant does not request a credible fear calls for interview.
“While assessing asylum adequacy through initial interviews with the asylum office is both more humane and efficient, this reform should not be based on using the fundamentally flawed and process-deficient accelerated removal system,” said Eleanor Acer, the senior director for refugees. protection at Human Rights First.
The new rule will take effect 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register. During that time, the government said it would accept new comments.
For now, would-be asylum seekers face an additional hurdle: a pandemic-related public health order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that gives border officials the power to expel migrants at the border, denying them the chance to apply for asylum. That will remain the policy as long as the public health rule is in place, Mr Mayorkas said recently.
