McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — An expedited asylum system recently announced by the Biden administration to reduce illegal entries on the Southwest border will have “deadly impacts” on migrants, migrant advocacy groups said Thursday.
“These efforts go against the ideals that represent the best of our country and will devastate and have potentially deadly impacts for people seeking safety,” Maribel Hernandez Rivera, director of policy and government affairs for border and immigration for the ACLU said during an online news conference held by the Welcome With Dignity Campaign on Thursday.
The Biden administration last week announced a new rocket docket process that would be implemented in five cities to quickly screen and remove unqualifying migrants who cross the border seeking U.S. asylum.
The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice said Thursday that the new Recent Arrivals Docket process will more expeditiously resolve immigration cases for non-citizen single adults who arrive between legal U.S. ports of entry. Cases are to be completed within six months, or 180 days, rather than the upwards of five years that cases currently take.
The current backlog of U.S. immigration cases is now over 3.5 million, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, of Syracuse University, which tracks cases.
But representatives from immigration organizations said the problem lies in a lack of resources at the border and the administration should instead increase the number of asylum personnel, judges, officers, as well as increase options and legal pathways for “Dreamers” and asylum-seekers, instead of reducing the time they have to plead their cases.
Blaine Bookey, legal director for the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, says the new policy allows an asylum officer to request on-the-spot evidence to prove they qualify for U.S. asylum, including paperwork and documents many do not have when they travel north to cross the border.
“At this stage, people are exhausted and traumatized from their journeys. They almost always haven’t had a chance to get legal help,” Bookey said.
The Biden administration says this rule will allow asylum officers to determine whether to apply certain bars, or tests, to asylum-seekers.
Cases that could trigger an asylum officer to request immediate information and data could include suspicion that the asylum-seeker is a criminal or terrorist; in persecution of others; committed a serious crime outside of the United States; or is a danger to security.
“While the administration says this rule is meant to improve safety and security at the border, in reality, it will make no one safer,” Bookey said.
Advocates say that credible fear interviews will be truncated and deportations could be fast-tracked under this new plan.
“Our immigration system requires smart, humane solutions, so families and individuals can seek asylum and access safety. Fast-tracking people back to danger is not a solution,” said Melina Roche, Welcome With Dignity campaign manager. “We must work to optimize processes for people seeking safety, not send them back to dangerous conditions.”
A bipartisan Senate border bill expected to be taken up in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, would do even more damage, they say.
“It would cause permanent damage to the U.S. asylum system and leave immigrant communities at risk,” said Robyn Barnard, senior director of refugee advocacy for the nonprofit Human Rights First.
But the House Homeland Security Committee Republicans, in a report released Thursday, urged tougher measures at the border by the Biden administration and predicts nationwide encounters could hit 10 million since Biden took office by the end of this fiscal year in September.
It also refers to the asylum interviews scheduled via the CBP One app as a “mass-parole scheme,” in which more than 590,000 people have scheduled appointments since January 2023, according to the report.
The report also says that “95.8 percent of all inadmissible aliens who scheduled appointments through the app from January-September 2023 were ultimately released into the United States on parole.”
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.