Changes to asylum screenings
WASHINGTON — Migrants who enter the United States illegally will be screened by asylum officers under a limited experiment that provides access to legal counsel, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.
The strategy will launch next week with a tiny number of migrants. Officials said the trial run is part of preparations for the May 11 termination of a pandemicrelated rule that for many migrants has suspended rights to seek asylum.
If expanded, the screening policy could bring major change to how people who seek asylum are processed upon reaching U.S. soil.
Homeland Security officials said they will begin working with a legal services provider, which they declined to name, that will represent asylum seekers at initial screenings, known as “credible fear hearings.” Access to legal representation will be critical to the plan, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been publicly announced.
The screening interviews will be conducted in large U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary facilities stocked with phone lines that will be used for the hearings, officials said.
CBP policy limits detention to 72 hours, which will be the target time frame for completing the screenings.
President Trump introduced expedited screening for those in CBP custody, but President Biden scrapped the practice in his first week in office. Biden administration officials say the new attempt is different because it ensures access to legal counsel and requires that screenings be conducted by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum officers, not Border Patrol agents, as was the case under Trump.
It currently takes about four weeks to conduct an asylum screening interview and, for migrants who fail to meet the criteria, another four to five weeks for air transportation back to their countries, officials said.
“This administration will continue to look at every tool available to make asylum processing more efficient, while upholding due process and other protections, as Congress refuses to act to fix our decades-old broken immigration system,” Homeland Security said in a statement.
The U.S. has expelled migrants 2.7 million times under a rule in effect since March 2020 that denies rights to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Title 42, as the public health rule is known, is scheduled to end May 11, when the U.S. lifts its last COVID-related restrictions.
Homeland Security officials have estimated that illegal entries from Mexico could rise to 13,000 a day after Title 42 expires, compared with about 5,500 in February.
Few migrants are screened at the border if they express fear of being returned home and are often released to pursue asylum in backlogged U.S. immigration courts, which can take years.
The initial screening establishes a relatively low bar — 77% of migrants passed in March, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The final approval rate for asylum is much lower.