NEW YORK / SAN FRANCISCO, April 16 (Reuters) – The United States Attorney General on Tuesday rescinded a decision authorizing some asylum seekers to ask bail before an immigration judge, a decision that extends the law. indefinite detention some migrants must wait months or years for their records to be heard.
The first decision of the immigration court of Donald Trump's new attorney general, William Barr, is in line with the steps taken by the government to curb the asylum process while tens of thousands people, mainly Central Americans, enter the United States to seek refuge. United States immigration courts are overseen by the Department of Justice and the Attorney General can rule in cases to establish a legal precedent.
Barr's decision is the latest example of the Trump administration that has adopted a tough line on immigration. This year, the administration has put in place a policy to return some asylum seekers to Mexico, while their cases are being examined by overwhelmed courts, a policy that has gone to trial.
Several senior Homeland Security officials have been deported this month because of Trump's frustrations over the influx of migrants seeking refuge on the southern border of the United States.
Barr's decision applies to migrants who have entered the United States illegally.
In general, these migrants are placed in an "expedited return" procedure – a faster form of deportation for those who have entered the country illegally in the past two weeks and are detained under 160. km from a land border. Migrants who come to the points of entry and ask for asylum can not be bonded.
But before Barr's decision, those who had crossed the border between two official ports of entry and had applied for asylum were eligible for bail, once they had proved to refugee claimants that they had a claim. credible fear of the persecution.
"I come to the conclusion that these aliens remain ineligible for bail, that they arrive at the border or that they are apprehended in the United States," Barr said.
Barr added that such persons could be held in immigration detention until the end of the trial or if the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decided to release them by granting them "conditional release". . DHS has the discretionary power to release people who are not eligible for bail and often does so because of insufficient detention space or other humanitarian reasons.
11PICTURES
William Barr through the years
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DOSSIER – In this archival photo of 12 November 1991, Attorney General William Barr's candidate is presented at Capitol Hill, Washington. One day, Barr had informed the US government that he could attack Iraq without Congressional approval, arrest a fallen foreign dictator, and capture suspects abroad without the permission of that country. These decisions reflect a broad view of the presidential power that Barr, President Donald Trump's choice to resume his former position as Attorney General, demonstrated before the Department of Justice and in the years that followed. (AP Photo / John Duricka)
United States President George H. Bush promulgated new civil rights guarantees for women and minorities at a ceremony at the Rose Garden on Thursday, November 21, 1991 in Washington, DC Dan Quayle, Vice President, and Acting Attorney General William Barr. The signing of the bill put an end to two years of struggle with Congress to see if it encouraged employment quotas. (AP Photo / Marcy Nighswander)
US President George H. Bush, right, and William Barr salute after Barr was sworn in as the new Attorney General of the United States, on Tuesday, November 26, 1991, at a ceremony hosted by the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo / Scott Applewhite)
US President George H. Bush takes action by speaking with Attorney General William Barr at the Oval Office of the White House on Monday, May 4, 1992 in Washington. The president met with senior officials of the national cabinet to tackle the long-term issues put forward by last week's deadly riots in Los Angeles. (AP Photo / Marcy Nighswander)
Nicholas Katzenbach, MCI Telecommunications Board Member, second from left, speaks at the Standing Senate Committee on the Judiciary on "The WorldCom Affair: Views on Bankruptcy" and competition "at Capitol Hill, in Washington, on Tuesday, July 22, 2003. Witnesses are: from the left, Marcia Goldstein, vice president of the Communications Workers' Committee for America, Morton Bahr, Vice President of the National Bankruptcy Conference, Douglas Baird, Head of Operations, Cerberus Capital Management, Mark Neporent. (AP Photo / Akira Ono)
Former Georgian Congressman Bob Barr, on the left, listens to William Redpath, National President of the Libertarian Party, answering a question at a press conference in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, October 23, 2007. (Photo AP)
The Attorney General of President Donald Trump, William Barr, meets with the Speaker of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, at Capitol Hill, Washington, on Wednesday, January 9, 2019. Mr. Barr, who held this position at the beginning years a confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate next week and could be set up at the Department of Justice as early as February when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will leave after the confirmation of Barr. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
President Donald Trump's Attorney General's candidate, William Barr, on the left, meets with the Senate Judiciary Committee member and Senator, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator, RS, Capitol Hill, in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. January 2019. Barr, who served in the early 1990s, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate would be in place at the Department of Justice in February, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would leave his office. functions after the confirmation of Mr. Barr. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
President Donald Trump's Attorney General's candidate, William Barr, arrives to meet Senate Committee Member and Sen. Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C, at Capitol, Washington, on Wednesday January 9, 2019. Barr, who served in the early 1990s, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate would be in place at the Department of Justice as early as February, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein would leave his duties after Mr. Barr's confirmation. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
William Barr, candidate for the Attorney General of President Donald Trump, on the right, meets with Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, at Capitol Hill, Washington, DC on Wednesday, January 9, 2019. Barr, who held the position in the early 1990s, has a confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee of the Senate next week and could be in place at the Department of Justice as early as February, when Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will leave after confirmation from M Barr. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)
The Attorney General's candidate, William Barr, left, turns to answer a reporter's question while he arrives to meet Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., At Capitol Hill on Wednesday January 9, 2019 in Washington. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)
HIDE CAPTION
SHOW CAPTION
Barr stated that he was delaying the 90-day effective date "so that DHS can proceed with the operational planning necessary to make further decisions on detention and parole."
The full impact of the decision is not yet clear, as it will largely depend on DHS 'ability to expand detention, said Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas .
"The number of asylum seekers who will remain in potentially unlimited custody pending resolution of their case will be almost entirely a question of DHS 'detention capacity, not whether the individual circumstances of each case warrant release or detention. detention, "said Vladeck.
DHS officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision. The agency had written in a memoir in the case that she claimed that eliminating the bail hearings of asylum seekers would "have an immediate and significant impact on …" detention operations ".
In early March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the DHS agency in charge of illegally detaining and deporting immigrants to the country, said the average daily number of immigrants in detention was up. rose to 46,000 for the 2019 fiscal year, the highest level since the agency created in 2003. Last year, Reuters announced that ICE had modified a tool used by officers since 2013 to decide whether an immigrant should be detained or released on bail, which made the process more restrictive.
The decision will have no impact on unaccompanied migrant children, who are exempt from accelerated removal. Most families are also paroled because of the lack of facilities to reunite parents and children.
Michael Tan, of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the rights group was planning to sue the Trump government for its decision, and that immigrant rights defenders had decried the decision.
Barr's decision was made after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions decided to re-examine the case in October. The sessions resigned from his position in November, leaving the matter to Barr to decide.
(Report by Mica Rosenberg in New York and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco, additional report by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington, edited by Lisa Shumaker)
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