WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is preparing more changes to the country’s asylum system aimed at speeding the processing and possible removal of migrants who continue to arrive at the southern border, an interim step as President Joe Biden continues to consider a broader executive order to crack down on border crossings that may take place later this year.
The change being considered would allow some migrants now arriving at the border to be processed first through the asylum system instead of being sent to the back of the line, according to four people familiar with the proposal. The people were granted anonymity to speak about a government policy before it was finalized.
The announcement, expected to come from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, could come as soon as Thursday, though people warned it could be delayed. The government’s broader aim with this change is to process recent arrivals quickly, within six months, rather than the many years this would take under the current backlog in the national asylum system.
The new rules would apply to people crossing between ports of entry and reporting themselves to immigration authorities.
The Biden administration is taking increasingly restrictive measures to deter people from coming to the U.S.-Mexico border. Currently, when a migrant arrives, especially a family, they are almost always released into the country where they await their asylum court appointment, in a process that takes years. Quickly processing newly arrived migrants could deter others from making the journey.
A record three million cases are currently disrupting the nation’s immigration courts. The average caseload for a judge is 5,000 and these changes will not help reduce the caseload. There are approximately 600 judges.
A bipartisan border deal drafted by three senators and approved by Biden earlier this year provided funding for 100 new immigration judges and assistants. But that legislation never moved forward after Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, urged fellow Republicans to end the deal.
Meanwhile, immigrant advocates have generally expressed concern about changes that would speed up already fraught procedures for migrants, who arrive at the U.S. border after an often harrowing journey north.