United States President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly drafting a plan to speed up the deportation of immigrants and raising the asylum bar.
The Department of Homeland Security has prepared a new guidance for immigration agents which is aimed at speeding deportation of immigrants by denying them asylum claim early in the process, according to Reuters.
Donald Trump to replace controversial travel ban with new executive order
The new guidelines, which have not yet been sent to field offices, instruct the immigration agents to only let through those applicants who have a good chance of getting an asylum ultimately, however, it does not specify the criteria for establishing a credible fear of persecution if sent home.
The guidelines direct the asylum agents to "elicit all relevant information" in determining whether the applicant has "credible fear" of persecution if sent home to their countries. The guidelines were reportedly contained in a draft memo dated February 17.
Reuters sources, who were familiar with the guidance draft, said that the ultimate goal of the new instructions is to increase the bar on initial screening of the immigrants so that it eventually eases strain on the courts and also significantly reduces the number of immigrants allowed to stay in America.
The guidelines will also leave wide discretion to asylum officers by permitting them to suss out the applicants who have a "significant possibility" of being approved by an immigration court later. The reports of the guidelines was first posted on the internet by McClatchy news organization.
The immigration guidelines are in two draft memos which are signed by the Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and are currently being reviewed by the White House. The memos also call for an urgent hiring of 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as well as 5,000 more border patrol agents.
Trump, last week, had said that he will issue a new version of his controversial travel ban, which prohibits refugees and people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering America. The ban has been temporarily blocked by the federal courts in the country.
The US president's travel ban, which resulted in country-wide protests, applies to migrants, refugees and US legal residents — Green Card holders — from Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Libya and Yemen. There is an indefinite ban on the arrival of Syrian refugees. Trump cited "terrorism concerns" as the reason behind the order.
