Rules and Procedures for Adjudication of Applications for Asylum or Withholding of Deportation and for Employment Authorization

Resumo

This rule would amend existing regulations to streamline the adjudication of asylum applications submitted to Asylum Officers within the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The rule would allow the INS to grant asylum to deserving applicants more promptly and to resolve expeditiously the great number of meritless and abusive applications being filed each year. Under the rule, Asylum Officers would no longer prepare detailed denials in cases where they do not grant asylum to applicants who have no legal immigration status, but instead would automatically issue mandatory referrals of these applications to Immigration Judges for completion of the adjudication as part of exclusion or deportation proceedings. In addition, the rule makes interviews discretionary, authorizing the Asylum Officers to refer claims immediately to Immigration Judges. The rule also would restrict employment authorization to applicants for asylum or withholding of deportation whose claims have been pending for more than 150 days, a period which would not run until the alien has filed a complete application and would not include delays sought or caused by the applicant. This rule also would conform exis