New rule aims to accelerate the removal of a limited group of migrants who do not qualify for asylum – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Biden administration rule announced Thursday aims to speed asylum processing at the southern border for a limited group of people believed to have committed serious crimes or have ties to terrorists, and ultimately deport them from the country more quickly.

The change comes as the administration has struggled to demonstrate to voters during an election where immigration is a key issue under its control at the southern border. Republicans have consistently criticized the Biden administration for policies they say have exacerbated problems at the southern border.

In a statement announcing the changes, the Department of Homeland Security said migrants deemed to pose a public threat will be taken into custody, but their eligibility for asylum will not be determined until later in the asylum process. Under the proposed rule, asylum agents who process cases in an initial screening phase, called credible fear screening — which would take place just days after a person arrives in the country — can now take that criminal history or terrorist ties into account when deciding whether someone eventually has to be removed from the land.

“This will allow DHS to quickly remove individuals who pose a threat to the United States much sooner than is currently the case, better ensuring the security of our border and our country,” the department said in the statement.

Under current law, certain mandatory rules make people ineligible for asylum, for example if you have been convicted of a particularly serious crime. But those usually come into play when an immigration judge makes a final decision on whether someone will be granted asylum, and that process can take years. Migrants are typically detained during this period, the department said.

When the rule is in effect, asylum officials can consider evidence of terrorism, for example, and use that as a basis for a denial.

The agency did not provide figures on how many people would be affected, but said it was small.

Republicans immediately criticized the changes as too few. House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, a Republican from Tennessee, in a statement called it an “unserious, politically motivated attempt to address a significant problem of the Biden administration’s own creation.”

Separately from the rule announced Thursday, the administration is considering bigger executive actions to crack down on immigration at the border. But the timing of this announcement largely depends on whether the number of illegal border crossings increases. After hitting a record high in December, they have fallen in recent months largely due to enforcement by the Mexican government.

Under U.S. and international law, anyone who comes to the U.S. can apply for asylum. People from all over the world are traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border to seek that protection. To obtain asylum, they must prove that they have been persecuted or fear persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

The bar is high and the majority of people who apply for asylum ultimately do not qualify. But the process can take years in overloaded immigration courts.

Critics have questioned whether the asylum system needs to be fundamentally changed to make it more restrictive, while others say the US has a moral obligation to protect people fleeing for their lives.

Last year, the government announced another rule aimed at restricting the asylum process, but in much more expansive ways than the rule announced Thursday. That rule made it extremely difficult for migrants who come directly to the southern border to get asylum, unless they use a government app to make an appointment or have already tried to seek protection in a country they passed through on way to the US.

Opponents said it is essentially a repeat of similar efforts by former President Donald Trump and have been sued. The Biden administration says there are substantial differences between their rule and what Trump tried. That rule still applies while the issue plays out in court.

In general, immigration advocates have been wary of steps that could make initial, credible fear screening more difficult. They say migrants often do these interviews immediately after surviving life-threatening dangerous journeys to the US and that these first credible fear surveys are intended to set a lower bar than final asylum decisions so people aren’t wrongly removed.

Gregory Chen, government relations director for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the rules barring people with criminal or terrorist backgrounds from seeking asylum are important to protect the country. But his concern is that these changes will accelerate the already “very complex” legal analysis.

“At that early stage, few asylum seekers will have the opportunity to seek legal advice or have time to understand the consequences,” he said. “Under the current process, they have more time to seek legal advice, prepare their case and appeal or seek relief.”

The new rule will take effect after a 30-day comment period.

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