NEW BORDER PLAN WOULD GIVE MIGRANTS 15 DAYS TO PROVE ASYLUM CLAIM
Theodore Bunker
A Senate Homeland Security panel has detailed a new plan for dealing with migrants coming to the United States. The plan would give them only 15 days to prove their claim for asylum, the Washington Examiner reports.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s “Operation Safe Return” plan would give migrants legal and medical help and several hearings with immigration officials to prove their claim that they have a “credible fear” of harm if they return to their home nation. If a judge denies them asylum, they must return to their home country.
The plan, which has the support of both Republican and Democratic members of the committee, outlines a timetable and a list of procedures for migrants who arrive at the border. First, families are to have an interview with U.S. Border Patrol within 1-3 days, and will be deported if they do not express credible fear. Those who do claim to have a credible fear of returning will then get a second interview within two days, with a translator if necessary.
In those first four days, they would receive a medical exam and meet with an attorney or attorneys, who will be provided. Asylum officers would conduct an interview within nine days, and their determination will be sent to the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security within one day. A judge would then get two to four days to review the case before making a determination.
“We have worked with your agencies to develop a streamlined process to rapidly, accurately, and fairly determine those family units that do not have a valid legal claim and safely return those individuals to their home countries,” the committee wrote in a letter. “The process would use existing authorities, but surge necessary resources to a limited, particular location on the southern border.”