Border Patrol union chief tells how to break log-jam of asylum seekers
Brandon Judd, president of National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents the agents and support staff of the U.S. Border Patrol, presents a great idea for changes that would simplify and restore control of the border. He recommends that DHS cross-designate and train Border Patrol agents at the senior patrol agent level as asylum officers with limited authority to conduct “credible fear” interviews.
As he explains: “Asylum and deportation proceedings are civil administration actions, not criminal. Therefore, DHS has the right to establish fear thresholds. Unlike in a criminal proceeding, where the government must prove its case, the burden of proof falls on the illegal border-crosser to provide proof establishing a credible fear.
“If the ‘credible fear’ process begins upon arrest by Border Patrol agents, instead of at a later interview before an asylum officer, the process will be much more efficient. If an asylum-trained senior patrol agent determines that the alien has not established a credible fear, an order of expedited removal can be issued, and the illegal border-crosser can be removed immediately. The illegal border-crosser does have appeal rights, but by regulation an immigration judge must hear the case within 10 days of the person asking for reconsideration. Again, because this is not a criminal proceeding, the burden of proof remains on the illegal border-crosser, not the U.S. government.
“If no credible fear is established, the process would take no more than 10 days instead of the 2 to 5 years it now takes to deport an illegal border-crosser who claims asylum. This simple adjustment would end catch-and-release. …”
Read the full article here. It was published as an analysis/opinion in The Washington Times, Sunday, March 31, 2019.
Another good discussion goes into more detail: “Top border agent: We don’t need Congress to stop mass migration,” by Daniel Horowitz in The Conservative Review, April 3, 2019. See it here.
According to an April 4 blog from NumbersUSA, the DHS has recently begun some use of the approach described by Brandon Judd.
You can contact The White House and urge Pres. Trump to have DHS deputize sufficient numbers of its senior Border Patrol officers to act as asylum adjudicators, and stop use of the ineffective catch-and-release procedures. Email: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
