A new regulation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which came into force immediately, now allows United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers to transfer certain asylum applications directly to the immigration courts, without calling the applicant for a prior interview. This measure applies to applications for affirmative asylum and applies to cases where the applicant already appears to be ineligible, in particular in the case of a filing outside the legal period of one year or an application found manifestly unfounded. USCIS states that interviews will continue to be organised before any decision to grant asylum.
Washington justifies this reform by the magnitude of the backlog, which exceeds 1.4 million cases. According to the DHS, more than 444,000 pending applications could be dealt with, while approximately 132,000 new cases per year could be forwarded directly to immigration judges. The administration believes that this will speed up the processing of legitimate applications and limit the abuse of the asylum system.
However, immigrant defence organisations are denouncing a reform that deprives many applicants of an essential step to present their dossier. They fear that the persons concerned will be directly referred to courts that are deemed to be stricter, without having had the opportunity to expose their situation to a USCIS agent. For Haitians, this decision comes in a particularly sensitive context with the end of the GST, making the timeliness of filing and the assistance of an immigration lawyer more decisive than ever.
