I’m running a little behind on my postings of court rulings, etc., but here’s Judge Sullivan’s ruling in the U.S.D.C. for the District of Columbia handed down on December 17.
The case involves individuals:
Seeking an opportunity for asylum . . . twelve adults and children, alleged accounts of sexual abuse, kidnappings, and beatings in their home countries during interviews with asylum officers.[fn2] These interviews [by asylum officers] were designed to evaluate whether plaintiffs had a credible fear of persecution by their respective home countries. A credible fear of persecution is defined as a “significant possibility” that the alien “could establish eligibility for asylum.” 8 U.S.C. § 1225(b)(1)(B)(v). Although the asylum officers found that plaintiffs’ accounts were sincere, the officers denied their claims after applying the standards set forth in a recent precedential immigration decision issued by then-Attorney General, Jefferson B. Sessions, Matter of A-B-, 27 I. & N. Dec. 316 (A.G. 2018).
Slip op. at 2.
Footnote 2 highlights the plaintiffs’ credible fears:
Plaintiffs Grace, Carmen, Gio, Gina, Maria, Mina, Nora, and Mona are proceeding under pseudonyms.
The Court found that several of the new Trump Administrative “credible fear policies”:
[A]s articulated in Matter of A-B- and the Policy Memorandum [issued by the Department of Homeland Security], violate both the APA [the Administrative Procedure Act] and INA [the Immigration and Nationality Act]. As explained in this Memorandum Opinion, many of these policies are inconsistent with the intent of Congress as articulated in the INA. And because it is the will of Congress—not the whims of the Executive—that determines the standard for expedited removal, the Court finds that those policies are unlawful.
Id.
Judge Sullivan found that, with two exceptions, “the new credible fear policies are arbitrary, capricious, and in violation of the immigration laws.” He issued a permanent injunction. Slip op. at 106-107.
More than 90% of asylum seekers never appear for their asylum court dates. This is a total sham and tells you that the overwhelming majority know that they will never qualify for asylum. Asylum needs to be eliminated as a reason to migrate to the US. Hundreds of millions of people could easily qualify for admittance to the US on current asylum rules. We can’t and shouldn’t take everybody. Other nations need to solve their own problems.
“More than 90% of asylum seekers never appear for their asylum court dates.”
False. The most recent year for which I can find data is 2016, when the absentia rate for asylum hearings was 39%. If you have more recent, credible data then please share it.
Was that for asylum hearings or for all deportation hearings? The numbers I see (just a quick top-level search) seem to say that asylum seekers in particular have appearance rates from the 80s to indistinguishable from 100%.
(The other part of the troll statement is also false, of course. If countries could solve their problems in isolation, the US wouldn’t be outsourcing so much of the manufacture of illicit pharmaceuticals consumed by its citizens.)