Human Rights Watch: US Lawmakers Threaten the Right to Seek Asylum — Republicans Try to Dismantle US Asylum Law as Part of Spending Package

There has been talk that President Biden might agree to asylum restrictions as a way of getting U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel.  Bill Frelick for Human Rights Watch questions this approach. 

In Frelick’s view, Republicans are seeking to “in effect, end the right to seek asylum on US territory by holding up the Biden administration’s supplemental aid bill for Ukraine [and] Israel . . . .”  

“Among other measures, Republican leaders would require asylum seekers transiting through another country to file claims in that country before reaching the US. There is already a `safe third country’ provision in US law, but it requires such countries to meet actual standards, such as providing access to full and fair asylum procedures. But many countries have too little capacity to examine claims or to provide protection.    

Republican leaders want to expand `expedited removal,’ a process that puts new arrivals at or near the border on a fast-track for deportation if they are not able to show a `credible fear’ of being persecuted in their home countries. Their proposal would expand expedited removal to people throughout the country for up to two years after arrival. This would open the prospect of country-wide racial profiling and short-cutting due process for immigrants facing deportation.

Republicans would change the standard in credible fear screenings – triggered when asylum seekers express a fear of return to their country of origin – from a `significant possibility’ to a `more likely than not’ probability of being found to have a well-founded fear of persecution. The change would have serious implications for the standard needed to establish an asylum claim and thus access an asylum hearing before an immigration judge. . . .

How much money the US spends on border security is fair game for negotiation; abandoning the right to seek asylum is not.”

KJ