Reported: EOIR expands use of "tent courts" along Southern Border | Immigration Policy Tracking Project

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Original Date Announced
December 6, 2019
CNN reports that EOIR will expand the number of immigration judges conducting hearings by video teleconference, in makeshift courts for migrants seeking asylum in the United States who have been returned to Mexico until their court date. [ID #120]
More Border Cases To Be Heard by Secret Immigration Courts
Effective Date
December 6, 2019

Current Status

Not in effect

Original Trump Policy Status

Status: Reported

Trump Administration Action: Change in Practice

Subject Matter: Humanitarian Asylum, Withholding and CAT Border Hearings and Adjudications

Agencies Affected: USCIS EOIR CBP ICE

Pre Trump-Era Policies

October 29, 2018
According to the CNN report, there were 19 judges from three separate immigration courts in Texas hearing cases remotely in mid-September, including in Brownsville and Laredo. Prior to MPP, an asylum seeker at the border, upon demonstrating a credible fear of persecution, was permitted to wait in the U.S. pending their removal hearing and asylum adjudication.
8 U.S.C. § 1158 - Asylum

Trump-Era Policy Documents

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