DHS directs ICE lawyers to seek early dismissal of some asylum cases

A new Department of Homeland Security directive instructs Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers to ask immigration judges to close some asylum cases before they reach a full merits hearing.

The directive took immediate effect and applies to prosecutors in ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, according to information obtained by Fox News. Lawyers must file motions to pretermit cases when they believe an asylum application fails to meet the legal requirements from the outset.

A motion to pretermit allows the government to argue that a case has legal deficiencies that can be decided without a full hearing. ICE cannot close the cases on its own. The immigration judge must decide whether to accept or reject the government’s motion.

Applicants retain the right to defend their claims. If ICE files a motion, the migrant can respond and argue that the case should continue to a merits hearing. The policy is intended to reduce the backlog in immigration courts and focus resources on applications that meet legal requirements.

The directive follows other DHS measures targeting applications the government considers fraudulent. A May directive expanded ICE lawyers’ ability to invoke immigration-fraud provisions and seek sanctions against legal representatives accused of submitting false information. The government has sought a $470,584 penalty against Suraj Raj Singh, accusing him of using identical or similar persecution narratives in 54 cases and filing 118 documents it considered false. A separate action against lawyer Vinod Doddamani resulted in sanctions of $255,232.