Few Improvements Made in Asylum Procedures, Commission Says

A federal commission expressed concern that the Bush administration may be leaving potential asylum seekers subject to unfair deportation or other unfair treatment.  The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan Congressional panel, first found two years ago that some immigration officials were improperly scheduling asylum seekers for deportation.  The commission called for preservation in the expedition removal process, so that those fleeing persecution would not be deported before receiving adequate review of their asylum status.

The commission, as shown in its new findings, says that DHS officials have failed to put into effect the majority of its 2005 recommendations.  “We are clearly concerned as to whether, in addition to prioritizing secure borders, the government is ensuring fair and humane treatment of legitimate asylum seekers,” said commission head Felice D. Gear.  “We are really quite disappointed and dismayed by the lack of response.”  The commission lauded the efforts of the Justice Department, for its initiatives on training immigration judges on asylum law, improvements on immigration court decisions, and expansion on the number of legal orientation programs for detained immigrants.

The commission further found no indication that DHS had taken no measures to make certain that asylum seekers were not treated like criminals while their claims were being processed.  The DHS responded that it would be too costly and unproductive to create a detention program that would separate asylum seekers and immigrants facing deportation, and that the inception of such a program might create incentives for people to claim that they were fleeing persecution.

DHS officials respond that they had in fact put into effect some of the commission’s recommendations, but that many recommendations given were impractical in the face of stopping undocumented immigrants from entering the U.S.  “We have taken their report seriously,” says Stewart A. Baker, DHS Assistant Secretary.  “But some of their recommendations just weren’t practical given the enormous flood of illegal immigrants that we deal with every day.” 

Eleanor Acer of nonprofit organization Human Rights First said that the Bush administration’s inability to address problems in a timely manner had harsh consequences: “Asylum seekers continue to be jailed in these prisonlike facilities for month and in some cases, for years.”

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