Trump Admin Testing Program to Speed Up Deportations of Asylum Seeking Migrants

October 27, 2019

According to a new report from the Washington Post, the Trump administration has begun testing a program aimed at speeding up the deportations of asylum seeking migrants.

“Squad” member Ilhan Omar reacted to the news on Twitter Sunday, writing:

Seeking asylum is a human right.

And Trump is doing everything he can to infringe upon that right. Under this program, asylum-seekers have one day to call a lawyer and can’t even meet with them in person. It completely abandons due process.

https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1188464397041258496

Not everyone agreed with Omar. In fact, most of the responses to her tweet are negative.

G Jones writes “I do not hate to say this but I am not for open borders. We have enough citizens/people in this country that do not get served properly.”

I do not hate to say this but I am not for open borders. We have enough citizens/people in this country that do not get served properly.

— G Jones (@g_rollo790) October 27, 2019

Shari responded “It is cheaper to improve the lives peoples in their own counties. Just have to end the mass #Corruption”

It is cheaper to improve the lives peoples in their own counties. Just have to end the mass #Corruption

— Shari (@havfaith1956) October 27, 2019

Wapo reports The Trump administration has begun testing a secretive program here that aims to speed up the deportation of asylum-seeking migrants after they cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

The pilot program — known as Prompt Asylum Claim Review — streamlines the asylum process so that migrants who are seeking safe refuge in the United States will receive a decision in 10 days or less, rather than the months or years it currently takes, according to Customs and Border Protection officials. The reviews are largely to determine if Central American migrants can be sent back to their homelands.

The accelerated reviews seek to accomplish two Trump administration goals: deterring migrants from attempting to cross the U.S. border and pushing asylum seekers out of the United States. El Paso is the only place where the administration is currently testing the program, which started this month, according to U.S. officials.

Migrants apprehended in the El Paso area are taken to a 1,500-bed soft-sided Border Patrol facility that opened in August and remains largely empty because the number of migrants taken into custody has plunged in recent months. They are given one day after arriving to call family or a lawyer, and then they have an interview with an asylum officer to determine whether they have a credible fear of persecution if returned to their home country, according to a CBP official who described the program on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about it publicly.