The Biden administration will soon issue a federal rule that reforms the U.S. asylum system to resolve claims more quickly and help reduce the backlog of cases pending in immigration courts.
The new rule gives more power to asylum officers by allowing them to hear and decide asylum claims that are typically assigned to immigration judges when immigrants arrive at the U.S. southern border. However, unaccompanied minors are exempt from the measure.
Government officials have alluded to the change in the asylum application process for months. The decision comes as the administration faces growing pressure from Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocates to overhaul the U.S. system, as well as amid concerns about a potential surge of immigrants.
By shifting processing from immigration judges to asylum officers, many hope that cases can be resolved and decided in months, not years. There are at least 1.7 million cases pending in immigration court, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which tracks immigration court data.
A new TPS initiative that could help migrants. “This will help reduce the burden on our immigration courts, protect the rights of those fleeing persecution and violence, and allow immigration judges to issue deportation orders when appropriate,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
The new regulations could reduce the backlog of cases by allowing asylum officers to adjudicate applications, rather than immigration judges who already have thousands of cases. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the Department of Homeland Security, oversees asylum proceedings.
“This is an effort to make the asylum process more efficient, without compromising the due process that applicants enjoy,” National Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters last week. In this sense, he added that the implementation will be gradual.
The USCIS portion of the process, which includes a credible fear determination and a decision on the asylum application, is still expected to take up to 90 days. The asylum seeker may be detained or released depending on individual circumstances, officials told reporters Wednesday.
If a case is denied, the individual can seek review by an immigration judge in a streamlined process. The immigration judge is expected to issue a decision about 90 days after the process begins.
The government introduced the proposed rule last August and received more than 5,000 public comments. The final rule, which officials anticipated Wednesday, will be published in the Federal Register in the “next few days.” It will likely go into effect this summer.
Many migrant children have been detained for weeks in the United States. Now the Biden administration must reunite them with their families. Last year, the Biden administration unveiled plans to speed up court cases for newly arrived immigrant families seeking asylum in certain cities. President Joe Biden cited the effort in his State of the Union address earlier this month.
“We are appointing dedicated immigration judges in much greater numbers so that families fleeing persecution and violence can have their cases heard more quickly,” the U.S. president said.