US immigration agency dismisses asylum applications without hearings

SALT LAKE CITY — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is unilaterally dismissing asylum claims that have been pending for years. Utah immigration attorneys say the path forward for many asylum seekers is now unclear, as many have been waiting years for a hearing.

Immigration Attorney Marti Jones with Stowell Crayk said that with the new Trump administration came a new interpretation of immigration law.

“What the government is now arguing is that because they were initially stopped at the border, they are subject to expedited removal, regardless of how long they’ve now been here and regardless of how long their applications for asylum have been pending,” Jones said.

However, this new interpretation is not just being applied to future asylum seekers. It is also being applied retroactively.

“(USCIS is) dismissing completely these applications for asylum that have been pending for years. (That includes terminating) people’s work authorizations,” Jones explained. “They’re telling people that despite the fact they properly filed their applications for asylum two, three, four, even five years ago, and despite the fact they have been waiting for an interview and they have valid employment authorization, that they now have to go back and start all over again, by beginning a different process, known as the credible fear process, as if they‘re back at the border.”

Jones said there is a backlog of over a million affirmative asylum applications pending with USCIS, and dismissing these applications is one way to clear that backlog.

Related: Utah has lost 60% of its immigration judges in a matter of months, causing growing case backlog

Back in April, the Justice Department sent out a memo, saying that because of the backlog, the Executive Office for Immigration Review’s interpretation of applicable law is that adjudicators can dismiss asylum applications without a hearing if they deem them “legally deficient.”

Jones went on to say immigration attorneys are unsure how things will continue to shake out for asylum seekers.

Under previous administrations, filing a Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal with USCIS, had been a legally settled pathway for seeking asylum, when the applicant was not in formal removal proceedings.

Now that pathway is seemingly a legal wall, with no clear path forward. She said asylum seekers who had properly followed the government’s rules may now be facing mandatory detention and expedited removal proceedings because of this reinterpretation.