US Judges Empowered to Disregard “Deficient” Asylum Cases
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A new directive from Donald Trump for Immigration Review establishes that judges “aren’t obligated to hear irrelevant evidence,” and can prematurely terminate cases lacking “legal merit.”
HAVANA TIMES – The Trump Administration has instructed immigration judges that they can “immediately resolve” asylum cases they consider “deficient.” The effect of this directive will be to deprive certain asylum seekers of a court hearing, exposing them directly to deportation.
The order was issued by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the sub-agency of the Justice Department that directs immigration courts. It orders the judges to evaluate whether the case has merit before conceding an asylum hearing.
The memorandum published on April 11, 2025 states:” Adjudicators may properly consider pretermission of a legally deficient asylum applications,” without a hearing. It further notes: “no further hearing is necessary once an immigration judge determines that an asylum application is subject to certain grounds for mandatory denial.”
The memo cites previous rulings to assure that the new order is consistent with existing laws, contending that “it would be highly inefficient and make little sense for adjudicators to inquire into every fact asserted in an asylum application if the fact makes no difference to the legal outcome.” In addition, immigration judges “aren’t obligated to listen to irrelevant evidence.”
EOIR blames judges for the backlog in asylum cases
Sirce Owen, interim EOIR director, argues in the memorandum that judges have a duty “to efficiently manage their dockets.” She blames them for the unprecedented backlog in unresolved asylum cases:” it is clear from the almost 4 million pending cases on EOIR’s docket, that [efficient case management] has not been happening.”
Fernando Romo, an immigration lawyer and consultant for the Association of Salvadorans in Los Angeles, termed the new directive “a tactic to be able to eliminate the large number of cases in the courts and be able to deport those people who don’t qualify more rapidly.”
The attorney considers that this directive is a “consequence” of the avalanche of asylum applications that have been filed in the past four years. “Unfortunately, we’re going to see many abuses on the part of some immigration judges, who will feel empowered to deny cases without a hearing,” Romo added.
Attorney Jose Guerrero, when consulted by Univision, agrees. He pointed out: “now the judges can review asylum cases without a hearing and judge whether they are, or could be, legally viable. And if the person didn’t articulate or explain their case correctly when they applied, the judge can then reject it.”
The attorneys’ website Legal en USA [legalenusa.com] explains that the disregarded cases would be those filed outside the timeline, or that fail to claim persecution due to the established categories of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Others rejected are the cases where the applicant has a criminal conviction.
“Current immigration regulations establish that a hearing is necessary if there are disputes over the facts. If the facts are accepted as true, but the application continues to be legally insufficient, a hearing isn’t necessary. This helps the courts avoid wasting time on applications that have no possibility of success according to the law,” they explain.
This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to speed up the judges so they can emit more decisions. The Republican president attempted to impose quotas during his first term (2017 – 2021), but didn’t succeed in eliminating the backlog, which has been steadily increasing since Barack Obama was president (2009 – 2017).
Trump’s declared deportation campaign
Since returning to the presidency, Donald Trump has declared a series of measures aimed at accelerating the deportation of immigrants. Among them are executive orders to cancel humanitarian parole, the permission to remain legally for two years in the United States that has favored over half a million Nicaraguans, Cubans, Venezuelans and Haitians. Trump’s abrupt cancellation of parole is currently on hold following an April 14th court order from District Judge Indira nTalwani, and is winding its way through the higher courts.
Five days later, on April 19th, the U.S. Supreme Court paused the deportation of migrants under the Alien Enemies Act.
This archaic law, intended for use in wartime, was invoked by the US ruler on March 14 to expel hundreds of Venezuelans accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. However, they were sent out of the country with no hearing, amid growing evidence of cases of migrants who were deported erroneously under this law.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.