ATLANTA — U.S. immigration policy changed again, and the move could impact people fleeing danger and local government staff.
Some could notice a lighter workload at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Atlanta. Immigration court judges who work under the Department of Justice could notice a heavier workload.
This week, the lines waiting to get inside the court in downtown Atlanta were relatively light. Some mornings, it wraps around the building before the doors open.
“In our immigration system in Atlanta, there’s 100,000 pending cases,” said Charles Kuck, an attorney who has worked more than 400 asylum cases in his career.
He said to relieve the currently backlog, the Department of Homeland Security said it is now going to eliminate a step in the asylum process.
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Asylum applies to a person fleeing persecution, torture, mutilation, danger based on their race, religion, nationality, social group or political belief, according to the federal government.
There are two types of asylum cases: defensive and affirmative. Those who fall under the affirmative asylum category were not apprehended at the border. Those who fall under the defensive asylum category are facing removal proceedings.
When an immigrant seeking asylum fills out an application, they must wait for a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer to interview them about their claim.
This interview can last four to eight hours, said Kuck.
“These are very in-depth, one-on-one interviews in a very non-threatening setting,” said Kuck.
Now, those officers are permitted to skip the interview phase. They can deny an application based on paperwork.
“We don’t know how they’re vetting these. We don’t know who’s vetting these. Is AI vetting these? Is a person reviewing every page? I doubt,” said Kuck.
When an application is denied, the case moves to removal proceedings in immigration court. There, you have less than two hours to explain your case to the judge before they make a decision.
Kuck said that could violate the Constitutional right to due process.
Georgia’s Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon said it streamlines the process.
“Due process is about having the opportunity to be heard before a neutral third party. That’s what people are getting when they go into immigration court in front of a judge.
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Kuck said that’s debatable. Whoever the presidential administration in charge appoints the judges. He said that could make them vulnerable to political pressure.
“A political appointee who is beholden to the administration for his job,” said Kuck.
The director of USCIS, Joseph Edlow, announced the new rule last month.
“For far too long the asylum system has been exploited for purposes of delay and work authorization, not legitimate claims of protection,” said USCIS Director Joseph Edlow. “America’s asylum system exists to protect individuals who genuinely fear persecution and this rule will help ensure that resources are directed to the timely adjudication of those claims instead of to those seeking to use the system as a loophole.”
Starting August 21, USCIS will stop issuing Failure to Appear Warning notices after a missed interview.
Kuck and McKoon agree it may be a smart move to check status of cases weekly, if not daily, now.
“They could just wake up tomorrow to a deportation order,” said Kuck.
Channel 2 Action News has opened a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how many interview officers work on asylum cases in Atlanta and how many applications are pending.
We are waiting for USCIS to fulfill the request.
There are 16 immigration judges in the Atlanta immigration court system.
The Department of Justice has not provided data on the number of pending asylum cases there.
In the U.S. as a whole, there were more than 1.4 million pending asylum cases based on data published in March of this year.
Between Jan. and March, judges in the U.S. had approved 66 cases and denied more than 200.
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