18 Democrats tell Biden administration to drop asylum rule

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ur Jaddou, the Democrats said migrants are now forced to make life-changing legal decisions on the fly and under duress, facing immediate and drastic consequences like a minimum five-year bar on reentering the United States.

“Allowing the consideration of mandatory bars to asylum during initial asylum screening interviews will force asylum seekers to present legally and factually complex arguments explaining the life-threatening harms they are fleeing shortly after enduring a long, traumatic journey and while being held in immigration detention and essentially cut off from legal help,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Illinois Democratic Reps. Delia Ramirez and Jesús “Chuy” García.