The Biden administration is yet again turning to the Trump playbook as it tries to slap together a border crackdown to succeed the end of the Title 42 “public health” order next month. The latest revived Trump-era idea: keeping asylum seekers in Border Patrol custody for longer, and conducting asylum screening interviews in phone booths, so that those who fail the screening interview can be deported as quickly as possible.
The plan, which reportedly could be rolled out this week, is a successor to a pair of programs the Trump administration used in 2019 and early 2020. (They were suspended when Trump instituted the Title 42 order in March 2020, which used the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to expel migrants without allowing them to ask for asylum.) Known as the Prompt Asylum Claim Review (PACR) and the Humanitarian Asylum Review Process (HARP), both programs sought to deport certain asylum seekers within 10 days of their crossing into the U.S.
Instead of being turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for further processing within 72 hours of their arrival in the United States—per federal detention standards—they were kept in Border Patrol custody for several days. Asylum officers conducted “credible fear interviews” from phone booths in the Border Patrol facility—just as the Biden administration plans to do now.
by Prozco®