Trump moves to speed up asylum cases without court hearings

The Trump administration is moving to fast-track cases in immigration court by allowing judges to drop “legally deficient asylum cases without a hearing.”

The change in policy was laid out in an April 11 memo sent to staff at the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a part of the Justice Department that decides who can be deported from the U.S.

The directive could result in immigration judges determining someone is not eligible for asylum without a hearing, based solely on what is filed on a lengthy and complex asylum request form.

The memo comes as the Trump administration is seeking to arrest and deport more people without permanent legal status in the U.S. But the immigration court system has faced a growing backlog of cases, and experts argue it has gone underfunded and under-resourced for years.

“EOIR adjudicators have the duty to efficiently manage their dockets,” according to the memo, sent by acting Director Sirce Owen. “It is clear from the almost 4 million pending cases on EOIR’s docket, that has not been happening.”

The Executive Office for Immigration Review had more than 4 million pending cases in the last quarter of 2024, including 1.5 pending asylum cases.

“One way to look at this is, the pendulum is swinging back toward the moves of the first Trump administration,” Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a lawyer and immigration policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said about the memo.

Under President Trump’s first term in the White House, immigration officials issued directives limiting asylum approvals and imposed quotas for judges that pressured them to quickly decide cases.

The policy memo “makes clear that adjudicators are not prohibited from taking—and, in fact, should take—all appropriate action to immediately resolve cases on their dockets that do not have viable legal paths for relief or protection from removal.”

Prior to the memo, judges might have granted a hearing for people seeking asylum, and taken more time to gather the necessary information for applications that lacked key details.

The directive effectively aims to increase the number of deportation orders issued before people can have what is considered a “merits hearing” that allows them to make their case in court.

The push to clear more cases from the docket also comes after the administration laid off over 100 EOIR personnel, including judges, lawyers and interpreters.

Fast-tracking asylum cases could hurt those without legal aid

Trump already suspended asylum applications for those entering the U.S. through the southern border, through an executive order he signed in January. But the order didn’t apply to asylum applications already filed, or those seeking asylum from other countries or the northern border.

Asylum has been part of U.S. law since 1980, allowing those who fear for their safety to seek refuge in the U.S. as long as they can show a credible fear of persecution in their home country.

But asylum is a confusing concept, said Ben Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“Historically, decisions on those applications are based on the application, as well as questioning of the person who’s applying, submitting evidence and reviewing all the facts and circumstances, including the application — but not limited to the application,” Johnson said, adding that he now expects to see a fast rate of termination of cases.

The EOIR did not respond to a request for comment.

Johnson and Bush-Joseph said that most people don’t have lawyers, meaning many asylum applications might not be as strong as they could be due to language barriers and issues understanding the complicated legal process.

“When people are not represented, they don’t necessarily know they have certain rights and options to continue to pursue their claims,” Bush-Joseph said. “It’s incredibly difficult to navigate these legal questions quickly, whether or not you’re an attorney.”

Asylum cases can be some of the lengthiest claims in immigration court — both to put together and to adjudicate. The American Immigration Lawyers Association estimated in 2023 that it takes an experienced attorney an estimated 50 to 75 hours to prepare an asylum application.

People awaiting decisions on such cases typically have to wait just over 4 years for a decision, according to 2023 data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The latest data collected by the group shows that the asylum backlog rose by about 8% in the first two months of the year, even as the overall court backlog decreased.

Johnson said the stakes of poorly-argued cases could not be higher.

“When you’re applying for asylum, it literally is a matter of life and death,” he said. “If you get it wrong and you send somebody back home who is actually facing persecution, then that person will be persecuted.”