Human Rights First opposes new asylum rule that will deny asylum hearings

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Biden administration finalized a new rule to allow consideration of bars to asylum during initial asylum screening interviews—when people have just arrived in the country, are often detained, and typically not represented by legal counsel. Human Rights First previously submitted a public comment that urged the rejection of this proposed harmful rule.  

“The next administration will inevitably use this rule to deliver people innocent of any wrongdoing back into the hands of repressive governments and other human rights abusers,” said Eleanor Acer, Senior Director for Refugee Protection at Human Rights First. “The rule risks the lives of people seeking refuge by subjecting them to legally and factually complex assessments during already fraught initial fear screening interviews where they are not likely to be represented by legal counsel. Some of the bars included in the final rule have long baffled legal experts and government lawyers and ensnared people who are innocent of any wrongdoing. By denying hearings to people who may very well be eligible for asylum, the rule will help fuel the Trump administration’s ability to deport people without essential due process safeguards.”   

In March 2022, the Biden administration rightly returned to the two-decade-long practice of not applying bars to asylum at the credible fear screening stage, explaining that applying bars during credible fear screening “would make these screenings less efficient” and that the complexity of the required inquiry, due process and fairness considerations, along with congressional intent that the “expedited removal process be truly expeditious,” counseled against the application of these bars in the screening process. Human Rights First has explained that assessing bars at the screening stage would increase the risk of wrongfully returning people seeking asylum to persecution. The interpretation of these bars frequently involves assessment of the reliability and context of foreign records, analysis of foreign laws, and fact-intensive assessments of an asylum seeker’s potential responsibility for bad acts committed abroad. Over the years, many people who are victims of armed groups or engaged in no wrongful conduct have been wrongly swept up by such overly broad bars, as Human Rights First has documented in the past.

People with strong asylum claims have repeatedly been ordered returned to places where their lives are in danger following the implementation of Biden administration rules that have rigged expedited removal to deny access to due process and asylum hearings to many who are eligible under the law. This new rule will lead to mistakes and put more people at risk of return to persecution. Along with the Biden administration’s asylum bans, it will also help fuel and facilitate the Trump administration’s deportation plans.