Christian Smith
Pilot program will be launched in five cities
Asylum seekers applaud as U.S. Border Patrol agents tell them they will be processed, as they wait between the double fence on U.S. soil along the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana, Mexico, Monday. , May 8, 2023, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) – The Biden administration on Thursday launched a new rocket registration process in five cities to quickly track and remove unskilled migrants crossing the border seeking asylum in the US.
The announcement came the same day as multiple reports that the Biden administration plans to close the southwest border if migrant encounters exceed 4,000 per day.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice said Thursday that the new Record of Recent Arrivals process will more quickly resolve immigration cases for noncitizen single adults arriving between legal U.S. ports of entry.
A similar rocket system for families called Dedicated Summary was started in 2021. However, migrant advocates said the system did not give families enough time to gather information and defend immigration cases.
Federal authorities promise that this new program will be fair and will reduce the wait time for thousands of asylum seekers and the costs associated with their stay if they do not qualify to remain in the country.
“Today, we are instituting with the Department of Justice a process to expedite asylum procedures so that individuals who do not qualify for assistance can be removed more quickly and those who do qualify can obtain protections sooner,” said Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said asylum seekers will receive fair but speedy screenings.
“These measures will advance that mission by helping to ensure that immigration cases are adjudicated quickly and fairly,” Garland said.
The current backlog of pending immigration cases in the US is nearly 3.6 million, and 1.2 million immigrants are awaiting asylum hearings, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Access Records Clearinghousewhich tracks immigration cases across the country.
Under the new process, non-citizen single adults will be included in the Registry of Recent Arrivals and judges from the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which oversees immigration courts, will prioritize adjudicating their cases. It will operate in these five cities:
- Atlanta
- Boston
- Chicago
- Los Angeles
- New York City
Immigration judges will strive to make final decisions in cases within 180 days, or six months.
The FY 2023 wait time for immigration cases pending from the time the migrant received a notice to appear until the case was decided was 601 days, according to TRAC.
However, federal officials said final decisions “will remain subject to the specific circumstances of the case and procedural protections, including allowing time for noncitizens to seek representation when necessary.”
There are fewer than 700 immigration judges nationwide. This means that each judge has on average about 5,000 immigration cases.
Last week, EOIR announced the additional hiring of 2 new immigration appellate judges and 18 new immigration judges in courts in California, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
“This rule is an important step the Department of Justice is taking to promote the efficient, speedy, and fair adjudication of immigration cases, allocate limited resources more efficiently, and ensure procedural protections for parties in immigration court,” they said. the authorities.
Mayorkas stressed, however, that Congress must reform immigration policies.
“This administrative measure does not replace the comprehensive and much-needed changes that the bipartisan Senate bill would bring, but in the absence of congressional action, we will do what we can to enforce the law most effectively and discourage irregular migration,” he said. Mayorkas. .
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
