MIAMI (AP) – The Trump administration cut the time refugees have to challenge the removal of their status, a move that critics say could push tens of thousands of people who have fled persecution and wars in their home countries onto a path to deportation.
The new policy, which takes effect Wednesday, reduces the number of days refugees have to challenge the revocation of their status from 30 to 10. This is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to restrict and transform a program that has served as a gateway for refugees for decades.
The aim of the new policy, according to the document, is to “mitigate potential risks” associated with people admitted as refugees but who were not eligible for refugee status.
The policy does not specify exactly how many people might be affected, but it specifically refers to refugees admitted under the presidency. Joe Biden’s administrationwhen he says there has been an “alarming erosion of the integrity” of the refugee program. Refugee advocates dispute this claim.
The Trump administration is already reviewing the cases of at least 185,000 refugees admitted under the Biden administration who still have pending green card applications.
Welcoming refugees has been the subject of bipartisan consensus in the United States since Congress passed the Refugee Act with overwhelming support in 1980. The law made refugee claims among the most rigorously vetted in the immigration system.
Refugee resettlement advocates and groups condemn new policy
Some say refugees won’t have enough time to defend their status under the new policy.
“These families did everything that was asked of them,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge. “They submitted to interviews, background checks and years of waiting overseas, only setting foot on U.S. soil once government officials approved their application. »
Now, she said, “the Department of Homeland Security wants to review these decisions within 10 days, a completely insufficient notice period to find an attorney, translate documents or get records out of a country they were forced to flee.”
HIAS, a leading refugee aid group, has warned that refugees who have fled violence, persecution and displacement risk being deported to countries where they could face harm, persecution and torture.
“They are trying to subvert the fundamental principle that refugee resettlement represents permanent protection,” said Naomi Steinberg, vice president of HIAS.
The Church World Service (CWS) said refugees will have “no meaningful opportunity” to respond or appeal before their status ends.
“This is a policy designed to facilitate the uprooting and expulsion of members of our communities who have fled persecution and who have been promised safety,” said Danilo Zak, CWS policy director.
Zach Kahler, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the agency has seen “an alarming erosion of screening and enforcement measures” under the Biden administration in order to “rush processing and maximize the number of refugees admitted.”
The Trump administration, he said, “is ensuring that refugee status is reserved only for those who were eligible under the law.”
The refugee program has been transformed
The Trump administration radically changed the refugee program and transformed it into a mechanism to resettle white South Africans in the country.
In September, the government announced plans to limit the total number of refugees admitted to the country in 2027 to 17,500, the majority of whom are white South Africans.
During his first administration, Trump reduced the number of refugees approved each year. The Biden administration rebuilt it and set a goal of admitting 125,000 refugees in the final year of his term.
Upon returning to the White House for his second term, Trump immediately suspended the refugee program, blocking people from around the world who were scheduled to come to the United States. The administration later reopened the program and limited it primarily to white South Africans.
The difference between a refugee and an asylum seeker
Refugees are people who applied for status while outside the United States, often while living in a refugee camp or transit country. They undergo screening and processing abroad and are granted refugee status before arriving in the United States. Once in the United States, they can apply for the green card.
A refugee is different from an asylum seeker, even though both are fleeing persecution in their home country.
An asylum seeker submits an application upon arrival at the U.S. border or after having already been on U.S. territory. The process can take several years. An asylum seeker is a person who has already been granted asylum while residing in the United States.
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