The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new memo on Tuesday, directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take additional steps to enforce penalties against immigration attorneys for document fraud, including filing false asylum claims. The move is the latest in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and campaign to restrict asylum cases in the immigration court system.
The statement quoted DHS General Counsel James Percival accusing “millions of illegal aliens” of committing fraud in the United States immigration system. “No place is this more rampant than in immigration court,” Percival continued, claiming, “it is standard practice for immigration attorneys representing illegal aliens to assert that virtually every illegal alien is going to be persecuted or tortured in his or her home country.”
Percival also asserted that the memo grants ICE attorneys “greater authority to enforce” penalties for document fraud already in place under the Immigration and Nationality Act and “stop the abuse of our asylum system.” But the DHS statement did not provide details on how ICE’s new policies will work in practice, and the agency did not immediately respond to Reason‘s request for comment.
Although fraud does exist in the asylum system, Victoria Slatton, an immigration attorney and former DHS asylum officer, told Bloomberg Law, it is not as widespread as the Trump administration claims. “There’s a difference between a weak case, a frivolous claim and a fraudulent claim,” Slatton continued. Without specifics, Slatton questioned how weak and intentionally fraudulent claims will be distinguished and said she fears the vague memo could cause some attorneys to fear taking on legitimate asylum cases.
The fraud that does exist, however, tends to start from organized criminal rings in the immigrant’s home countries, Heather Hogan, the policy and practice counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association and a former asylum officer, told Bloomberg Law. And in the U.S., immigration attorneys are already trained to avoid cases they believe are fraudulent, Hogan continued.
The most recent DHS announcement is not the first time the Trump administration has alleged rampant fraud within the immigration system and asylum program. In March of last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that calls immigration attorneys who “coach clients to conceal their past or lie about their circumstances when asserting their asylum claims…in an attempt to circumvent immigration policies” threats to national and homeland security. The language resembles statements Trump made about the asylum program during his first term, when he similarly accused attorneys of coaching their clients and called the program a “scam.”
Asylum is a type of immigration status meant to protect individuals from persecution, according to the American Immigration Council. To apply, foreign nationals must already be physically present in the U.S. or at a port of entry, apply within one year of their arrival, and qualify as a refugee under federal law. Applicants must provide evidence that they either previously “suffered persecution in their home country…or that they have a ‘well-founded fear’ of future persecution,” writes the American Immigration Council. The process is complicated and averages between four and six years to complete because of the backlog of over 2.3 million asylum cases still open at the end of March. This backlog has been made worse by the Trump administration’s decision to pause all asylum decisions in November following the shooting of a National Guard member. But as of March 30, the pause has been lifted for all but 40 countries.
Applicants who are able to navigate the process, however, and are granted asylum can live in the U.S. permanently and gain a path to citizenship.
Some individuals are barred from being granted asylum, regardless of refugee status, including foreign nationals who have been convicted of a dangerous or serious crime or who are believed to be a danger to U.S. security.
It remains to be seen what policies ICE will implement to combat what the Trump administration perceives as rampant fraud in the asylum program. It’s also unclear how these policies may impact the already record-low asylum approval rating of just 7 percent in April (compared to nearly 50 percent during former President Joe Biden’s administration and between 20 percent and 30 percent during Trump’s first term). But as Trump moves forward with his plans to deport 1 million people a year and continues to drastically disrupt immigration policies, the lives of millions seeking humanitarian relief hang in the balance.
