A new rule enacted by the Biden administration at the border makes it harder for asylum seekers to get past their initial screening.
Migrants seeking protection are typically sent to an asylum officer for an initial fear screening. But under another rule enacted by the Biden administration earlier this year, migrants arrested in between ports of entry are in most cases barred from seeking asylum and sent back to Mexico or their home countries, instead.
Under the new rule, asylum seekers that do make it to the screening must undergo more intensive questioning by asylum officers. Robyn Barnard, senior director of Refugee Advocacy with Human Rights First, says the new rule further complicates the screening process.
“In addition to raising the screening threshold, they now are asking the officers to consider whether the person is subject to one of the statutory bans on asylum,” she said.
Those bans include things like terrorism charges or persecution of others. Barnard says they are broad and legally complex issues that could unfairly bar people with legitimate claims — like former child soldiers.
She says those bars are usually argued in immigration court, and including them to the initial screening will add hurdles to an already lengthy process for asylum officers — especially as the new policies put in place this year speed up the initial interview process.
“In the past, in the interviews, the officers would be looking just to see basically if the person has a significant possibility of establishing later on at their full merits hearing eligibility for asylum,” she said. “It would sometimes take several weeks for that interview to take place, allowing someone to have a chance to call their family or friends and secure counsel, now they’ve pushed those interviews forward and they could happen within the first 24 hours of someone being in this country, and that happening by phone.”
The rule goes into effect this week.
