The Trump administration is working on enacting a new policy to deal with asylum claims on the southern border, and you can bet your bottom dollar the left is going to sue over this:
DC EXAMINER – The Department of Homeland Security is racing to implement a plan that would give federal law enforcement on the border the authority to conduct interviews with asylum seekers who fear returning to their home countries, according to two sources with firsthand knowledge of the plan.
Under the pending procedural change, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers would train Border Patrol agents on the southern border how to conduct “credible fear interviews,” which immigrants must pass to go on to claim asylum. Agents would conduct the interviews shortly after apprehending people who have illegally crossed from Mexico to the U.S.
The Trump administration is pushing to start agent training “ASAP,” according to one official.
The proposal has some downsides. For instance, there likely would be fewer Border Patrol agents performing law enforcement duties while undergoing training. But that would be offset by an overall decline of undocumented immigrants seeking refuge in the U.S.
“If that gets rolled out and we actually start deporting people within a timely manner, you’re going to see the numbers drop exponentially,” the official said.
Homeland Security, under acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan, would essentially deputize law enforcement to carry out citizenship officers’ jobs in order to initially reduce the number of people who have passed that stage and are waiting on asylum decisions. Those calls usually take two to five years due to the current 900,000 cases waiting to be decided by fewer than 500 immigration judges nationwide.
The Examiner reports that DHS believes they are within their legal authority, so they are not going to take this to Congress for their approval. After all, border patrol officers are immigration officers.
Also, there are safe guards in place as well. For example, an immigrant who is denied has the right to appeal the decision by the border patrol within 10 days of the decision.
Considering the amount of people coming across the border, this will probably go a long way in helping alleviate the massive burden put on our immigration system.