The Trump administration is preparing a regulation that would allow U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers to reject certain asylum applications without first interviewing the applicants — a significant departure from the agency’s longstanding practice of hearing every asylum-seeker before deciding their case, according to internal Department of Homeland Security documents reported by CBS News.
The proposed regulation, described in federal documents obtained by CBS News reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez, would target applications that USCIS officers determine were filed more than one year after the applicant entered the United States — a window that, under existing U.S. immigration law, generally renders a person ineligible for asylum unless certain exceptions apply.
If finalized, the rule would represent the latest in a series of measures the Trump administration has taken to narrow access to the U.S. asylum system, which administration officials have characterized as plagued by systemic fraud.
How the Rule Would Work
Under current practice, virtually every asylum-seeker who files a claim with USCIS receives an interview before a decision is rendered. The interview is the central evidentiary moment in the asylum process — the point at which the applicant can explain their fear of persecution, describe the circumstances of their flight, and respond to questions about the timeline of their case.
The new regulation would change that for cases the agency considers filed late.
According to documents reported by CBS News, USCIS officers would be empowered to reject such applications based solely on the paper record and refer the applicants to deportation proceedings before the Justice Department’s immigration courts.
Once placed in those proceedings, applicants would have to argue their case to remain in the country in what CBS News described as an adversarial setting — meaning they would face a government attorney seeking their removal, rather than the more administrative posture of a USCIS asylum interview.
USCIS officers would retain the discretion to allow a case to proceed to a full interview if they determine the applicant qualifies for one of the recognized exceptions to the one-year filing deadline. Those exceptions include serious medical conditions, ineffective legal counsel, and other circumstances that prevented timely filing. Unaccompanied minors are not subject to the deadline at all.
The Administration’s Rationale
In a statement to CBS News, a USCIS spokesperson said the administration is “considering multiple options” to address a backlog of more than one million asylum claims, which the spokesperson attributed to what they described as “the Biden administration’s dangerous open borders policies.”
The spokesperson said the proposed approach would allow USCIS to “avoid wasting time on asylum applications that it would otherwise refer to immigration proceedings” and would route those cases more quickly to a judge.
The framing reflects a broader administration argument that the asylum backlog itself has become an incentive for what officials describe as economic migration — people who enter the system, receive work authorization while their case is pending, and remain in the country for years before any final determination is reached. That concern has been articulated, in various forms, by both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Legal Advocates Raise Alarm
Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, told CBS News she was concerned that the regulation would place applicants in deportation proceedings without giving them an opportunity to explain why they filed their applications after the one-year mark.
Cruz noted that there are many reasons asylum-seekers may file after the deadline, including periods spent in the United States under another temporary status, such as a valid visa, before circumstances in their home country deteriorated to the point that they require asylum.
She characterized the proposed regulation in remarks to CBS News as changing the rules for people who have been navigating a complex immigration process, often over many years.
The Scale of the Backlog
The numbers behind the policy debate are substantial. USCIS, which adjudicates asylum cases for people who are not in deportation proceedings, had approximately 1.5 million pending asylum applications as of last fall, according to government figures cited by CBS News.
The Justice Department’s immigration courts, which handle removal proceedings, had 3.3 million pending cases as of March, including roughly 2.3 million involving asylum requests.
The proposed rule is one of several measures the Trump administration has pursued to constrain asylum access and accelerate deportations. The administration has signed “safe third country” agreements with multiple countries to redirect asylum-seekers to nations other than the United States.
Last year, USCIS froze all asylum cases for several months following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., by an individual who had previously been granted asylum. That suspension was later scaled back but remains in effect for asylum-seekers from 39 countries listed on the administration’s travel ban proclamation.
What This May Mean for the Haitian Community
For Haitian asylum-seekers, many of whom entered the United States under humanitarian parole programs or through periods of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), the one-year filing deadline has long been a source of confusion and risk. Haitian families who arrived years ago under one legal status and later filed for asylum as conditions in Haiti deteriorated further are precisely the type of applicants who could be affected by the proposed rule if their filing falls outside the one-year window without a recognized exception.
CTN will continue to follow developments as the regulation moves through the federal rulemaking process and will report any changes to its scope, timing, or implementation.
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