The interim director of Eoir, Sirce Owen, argued in the memorandum that the judges have the duty to efficiently manage their files “for asylum requests and blamed the fault of the unprecedented jam of processes that the immigration courts face
The government of President Donald Trump has instructed the immigration judges to dismiss asylum cases that they consider “poor”, which will deprive certain applicants of a hearing and expose them directly to deportation.
The Executive Office for Review of Immigration Cases (Eoir), A dependency of the Department of Justice that controls the Immigration Courts, has given the order to the judges so that before granting an asylum hearing they evaluate whether the case has merit.
Eoir pointed out in a recent memorandum that the legislation states that “the awards (the judges) can predetermine legally poor asylum requests without a hearing.”
In addition, the current regulations indicate “expressly” that an additional hearing is not necessary once an immigration judge determines that an asylum application is subject to certain causes of mandatory denial.
The interim director of Eoir, Sirce Owen, argued in the memorandum that the judges have the duty to “efficiently manage their files” and blamed the fault of the unprecedented traffic of processes faced by the immigration courts. “Of the almost four million pending cases on the Eoir agenda clearly follows that this (efficiency) has not happened,” he said.
For Fernando Romo, immigration lawyer and advisor to the Association of Salvadorans of Los Angeles (Asosal), the new directive “is a tactic to eliminate the large number of cases in the Courts and be able to deport faster the people who do not qualify,” he said to EFE.
The lawyer considers that this instruction is a “consequence” of the avalanche of asylum requests that were submitted in the last four years.
“Unfortunately, we will see many abuses of some immigration judges, who are going to feel empowered to deny cases without hearing,” Romo added.
This is not the first time that Trump tries to put the accelerator to the judges to issue more decisions. The Republican already tried to impose quotas in his first government (2017-2021) but failed to stop the traffic jam, which has been increasing from the Barack Obama government (2009-2017).
With EFE information
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