Judge rules DHS must give asylum seekers individualized parole hearings
Source: The Hill
BY LYDIA WHEELER - 07/02/18 05:14 PM EDT
A federal district court judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration must consider on an individual basis whether immigrants who come to the U.S. seeking asylum represent a flight risk or a danger to their community before they can be detained if they've proven a credible fear of persecution.
Judge James Boasberg, on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from arbitrarily detaining asylum seekers. The order stems from a class-action lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed on behalf of asylum seekers who have been denied parole even though Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials found they had a credible claim of persecution in their home countries, which is the first step toward gaining asylum status.
The ACLU argued that DHS violated its own parole directive and immigration law in an effort to deter other asylum seekers from coming to the country. In his ruling, Boasberg said he was ordering DHS to follow a policy the government admitted it was required to follow.
To mandate that ICE provide these baseline procedures to those entering our country individuals who have often fled violence and persecution to seek safety on our shores is no great judicial leap, he said. Rather, the issuance of injunctive relief in this case serves only to hold defendants accountable to their own governing policies and to ensure that plaintiffs receive the protections they are due under the Parole Directive.
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Read more: http://thehill.com/regulation/395254-judge-rules-dhs-must-give-asylum-seekers-individualized-parole-hearings
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(130,156 posts)Gothmog
(144,005 posts)This is a big deal https://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/court-orders-trump-admin-to-give-asylum-seekers-fair-parole-hearings
In the decision, the court sided with the immigrants who brought the class action and ordered the Trump administration to restore the practice of granting fair, individual parole hearings to asylum-seekers who have passed that initial threshold. Prevailing at the parole hearing means that an asylum-seeker is released from detention and allowed to remain in the country pending a decision on their asylum petition, a process that can take several years.
To mandate that ICE provide these baseline procedures to those entering our countryindividuals who have often fled violence and persecution to seek safety on our shoresis no great judicial leap, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg observed dryly.
Under the Trump administration, Boasberg wrote, parole rates have plummeted from over 90% to nearly zero and the Department of Homeland Security has shifted from individually considering whether each asylum-seeker should be granted parole until their hearing to uniformly denying such requests.
The numbers here are irrefutable, he notes in his opinion.