DHS to publish new asylum regulations December 11, 2020

The US Department of Homeland Security has prepared a new final rule to be published on December 11, 2020. This 419 page rule is titled Procedures for Asylum and Withholding of Removal; Credible Fear and Reasonable Fear Review. A copy of the rule is available online at the Federal Register website. It would become effective on January 10, 2021.

The final rule is among several that DHS will likely attempt to push through prior to the incoming Biden Administration taking office. It will almost certainly be challenged by immigration advocates and litigated in the federal courts.

Some of the changes proposed by this rule include:

• Establish streamlined proceedings for asyum seekers found to have established a credible fear of persecution, separate from those under INA 240 (removal proceedings)
• Alter the standards for adjudication of asylum claims
• Establish in the regulations many of the interprative and administrative changes that the Trump Administration has been making