The investigative arm of Congress wants to know what happened to hundreds of immigration court cases for people who passed an initial asylum interview.
A new report looks at test programs that aimed to speed up the screening process for certain migrants seeking help at the southwest border.
Asylum-seekers, often families, made up a big chunk of the migrants who arrived during a spring 2019 surge. In October of that year, the Homeland Security and Justice Departments started test programs at the border to more quickly identify people with claims strong enough to be heard by a judge.
The Government Accountability Office says notices to appear in immigration court are missing for more than 600 people who showed credible fear via the programs.
Homeland Security responded that immigration authorities would make sure those cases get sent to the Justice Department, which said the court notices are missing because they haven’t been filed.
