U.S. Department of Justice Allows Judges to Deny Asylum to Migrants Without Hearing
The U.S. Justice Department has given immigration judges the power to immediately close cases and deny asylum to migrants if it believes their applications have little chance of success. Such expedited decisions bypass the usual hearing process, which can take years. About this informs The New York Times.
According to the document, judges can now close “legally hopeless” cases without holding a full hearing, denying applicants the opportunity to personally present their case for persecution in their country of origin.
Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) Acting Director Searcy Owen noted in an internal memo that EOIR has nearly four million pending cases. In this regard, judges must take all appropriate measures to immediately close cases that do not have a legal basis for protection from deportation or asylum.
This policy effectively means that, in some cases, judges will be able to make deportation decisions without a full hearing on the merits of the case, denying applicants a chance to explain their circumstances in detail.
Immigration judges are employees of the Department of Justice, not independent federal judges, so they must follow the policies set forth by the department. They decide whether the applicant is eligible to remain in the United States or is subject to deportation.
In order to receive asylum, the applicant must satisfy the court that, if he returns home, he risks persecution or violence because of his race, religion, nationality, political beliefs or membership of a particular social group.
The memorandum clarifies that a hearing on the merits is required only when there are factual disputes in the case. If all the circumstances are recognized by the parties, and the application itself is legally untenable, the hearing is not held.
At the beginning of this year, there were about 700 immigration judges in the country, each of whom can handle between 500 and 700 cases each year. This number is insufficient to effectively deal with the nearly four million cases currently in the system, of which around two million are asylum claims.
