These Five U.S. Cities to Receive Priority in Asylum Applications
President Joe Biden’s administration has announced that a new list of pending cases will receive priority treatment in U.S. immigration courts, reducing the time required to resolve some single adults’ asylum applications from years to months.
Immigrants settling in five cities—Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York—will be included in a “new arrivals” list, with the goal of having judges resolve their applications within 180 days, instead of the current average of approximately four years.
Also worth reading: “Judge Blocks Part of Florida Anti-Immigrant Law“
The backlog of cases in the courts is believed to encourage a higher influx of individuals into the country, particularly those whose applications lack a solid basis.
The Department of Justice has designated 10 judges for this task. Authorities indicated that they were uncertain about the number of cases they would handle, complicating the assessment of the potential impact.
Government officials argued that the failure of an extensive Senate bill this year justifies the lack of bolder measures, a familiar strategy of criticism against Republicans. The latter have used the unprecedented numbers of people arriving at the U.S. southern border to criticize Biden’s handling of immigration in an election year.
“This administrative measure does not substitute for the sweeping and much-needed changes that the bipartisan Senate bill would bring, but in the absence of congressional action, we will do what we can to enforce the law as effectively as possible and discourage irregular migration,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Authorities noted that the five aforementioned cities were selected due to the judges’ willingness to address cases and their status as prominent destinations for migrants.
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