Trump administration asks for $23M to train Border Patrol agents to decide credible f
Trump administration asks for $23M to train Border Patrol agents to decide credible fear claims
by Anna Giaritelli
| May 09, 2019 07:58 PM
The Trump administration is requesting $23 million for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers to train U.S. Border Patrol agents on how to carry out credible fear screenings of migrants on the southern border, according to a House aide.
The Department of Homeland Security’s supplemental budget request included millions of dollars “to begin implementing the Border Patrol credible fear screening program,” which the Washington Examiner was first to report last week. The money was included under the Border Patrol Pay and Retention Initiatives line item.
Since the administration internally ordered the plan forward April 30, only 10 Border Patrol agents have started training, according to a Customs and Border Protection official who testified before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations Thursday afternoon.
CBP Deputy Commissioner Robert E. Perez said the pilot program only entails 50 to 60 agents being trained to hear and decide credible fear claims, which is the prerequisite for being able to apply for asylum. After the group of 10 agents passes through training, two more groups of 20 to 25 agents each, will go through training, Perez said.
Tracy Renaud, acting deputy director of USCIS, expects the 10 agents to complete training by the end of May and start screening people then or by early June. However, it’s not clear how the $23 million is being spent on the pilot program.
“They’ve already done — as of the end of this week — two weeks of distance training, where they read a number of lesson plans and their materials. They will begin their in-person training next week and they will have several weeks of in-person training at our asylum office conducted by our asylum officers where they will do some mock interviews,” said Renaud.
The trainees will also observe USCIS officers conduct credible fear screenings. As is protocol for USCIS screenings, supervisors must sign off on agents' decisions to let a case proceed or not.
Each screening takes approximately two hours, and screeners are only able to hear three to four claims per day. Perez said he does not know if the agents will spend all their time hearing cases or only some of their time.
One person with a first-hand knowledge of the program’s implementation said the administration hopes by hearing more credible fear claims sooner in the apprehension process, it can speed up the deportation process for those who do not pass.
Immigrants whose credible fear claims are denied would then have the ability to appeal the decision but only have 10 days to have the case heard.
DHS did not get congressional approval before implementing the change. Department officials believe they are within the law because an asylum officer must be an immigration official, which Border Patrol agents are considered to be. As long as agents get training on how to carry out those interviews and make those decisions, the department believes the plan is sound, the official, who spoke on background in order to speak freely, explained.
Currently, immigrant families who surrender to Border Patrol agents are taken to a station and interviewed there about their background. Those in custody are not to be held longer than 72 hours. While in Border Patrol custody, an immigrant can claim a “credible fear” of returning to his or her home country during the general interview with an agent.
The agent would then notify U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of the claim, and a representative would hear and decide a person’s claim, likely after the person in custody has been transferred from Border Patrol to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. Families who have been found by a USCIS officer to have a credible fear of return cannot be held by ICE more than 20 days and will be released into the U.S. and told to show up for their asylum verdict years down the road.
CBP has not shared what quantitative effect it believes the program will have on the number of screenings waiting to take place.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...le-fear-claims
