Original Date Announced

In Policy Memo 21-09, the EOIR Director provides "an overview and summary" of the recently finalized rule revising standards and procedures for asylum, withholding of removal, Convention Against Torture relief, credible fear, and reasonable fear. Among the many points made about the new regulations:

• The standard of proof for withholding of removal and CAT claims in expedited removal is raised from "significant possibility" of harm to "reasonable possibility."
• Asylum officers must consider internal relocation and mandatory asylum bars during credible fear screenings.
• An immigration judge should consider only the law of the applicable circuit when reviewing an asylum officer's negative fear determination and not the precedents of all circuit courts.
• The definition of "frivolous" has been revised and expanded, and asylum officers are empowered to make frivolousness findings.
• Immigration Judges may now pretermit an asylum application, sua sponte or upon a DHS motion, if the judge finds the applicant did not make a prima facie claim.
• Several critical legal definitions and standards are changed, including membership in a particular social group, political opinion, persecution, nexus, internal relocation, firm resettlement, public officials acting under the color of law, evidence based on stereotypes, and the exercise of discretion.
• Information on applications for protection may now be disclosed in a number of immigration enforcement or criminal law enforcement scenarios.

[ID #1241]