There is talk of making a major change to U.S. asylum laws, to make it impossible for anybody who has been arrested attempted to enter the U.S. illegally or who has been deported from making an asylum application, News Radio 1200 WOAI's Michael Board has learned.
That would be a major change to current laws, according to Lee Francis Cissna, the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, who made a stop in San Antonio.
"If you can prove that you are persecuted in your home country, our adjudicators will listen to your claim, listen to your claim fairly, and will act according to the law," Cissna said.
Many people say the nation's asylum laws are being 'gamed' by immigrant smuggling gangs. They tell people who have paid $8,000 to be smuggled into the U.S. not to flee the Border Patrol, but to actually seek out Border Patrol agents and make an asylum claim, in hopes they will be released into the U.S. while their asylum hearing is pending.
Not surprisingly, many of the asylum claimants never show up for the hearing.
There is also talk of ending grants of asylum for victims of domestic violence, and restricting asylum to individuals who have a 'credible claim' that they will face persecution if they return to their home country.