DHS, DOJ Issue Final Regulations to Ensure Uniformity in Asylum
A sober response to more than 87,000 comments — but uniformity likely won't last
By Andrew R. Arthur on December 15, 2020
DHS and DOJ issued on Friday their final rule on proposed regulations to amend procedures in cases involving asylum, statutory withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. The rule applies to both asylum officers (AOs) in DHS's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as well as to the immigration courts and Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) within DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). The final rule is not materially different from the proposed regulations in the June 15 notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) — which were intended to impose uniformity in the application of the law, and to which the Center and I responded in July. Don't expect that uniformity to last.
We were hardly alone in filing responses to the NPRM.
Specifically, the departments received more than 87,000 comments in response to the NPRM, 311 of them from various organizations ("advocacy groups, non-profit organizations, religious organizations, unions, congressional committees, and groups of members of Congress"), and the rest from individuals. Most of the responses were opposed to the NPRM, and most supported the (flawed) status quo.
Here is a representative sample of what the departments were dealing with: "Many comments assert that the NPRM targets certain nationalities, groups, or types of claims and is motivated by a nefarious or conspiratorial animus, particularly an alleged racial animus."
https://cis.org/Arthur/DHS-DOJ-Issue-Final-Regulations-Ensure-Uniformity-Asylum
