WH speeding up asylum-seeker cases

The Biden administration is accelerating the asylum timeline for migrants who enter the US illegally en route to five major cities.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that a new Recent Arrivals Docket will swiftly place single adults before immigration judges in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.

Those asylum claims must be resolved within 180 days, though grace periods would be granted in some circumstances.

More than 3 million asylum cases were being considered in the US as of December, and many have to wait years before their claims are resolved. As of last May, migrants crossing into Texas from Mexico were handed paperwork that put their court dates in Chicago as far in the future as 2032.

Had the Senate passed a bipartisan border bill in February, a provision similar to the RA Docket would have forced asylum claims nationwide to be adjudicated within the same six-month period.

House Republicans, who impeached Mayorkas in February, have repeatedly pressured President Biden to bring back Trumpera policies such as Remain in Mexico, which forced asylumseekers to await their court dates south of the border.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced this week that his chamber would take the border legislation back up — only to be called out immediately by the chief Republican negotiator on the bill, Sen. James Lankford.

“Why don’t you actually resolve it?” he exclaimed, saying Democrats and Republicans should return to the negotiating table.