U.S. Wants Judges Off Asylum Cases

The Justice Department issued proposed regulations Friday that would bar asylum-seekers facing deportation from having their requests for asylum heard before an immigration judge.

The proposal was criticized by civil libertarians, who say that cutting immigration judges out of the process would violate the rights to due process of asylum applicants fearful of persecution if they return to their home countries.

An Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman said the proposal is designed to streamline repetitive procedures and to reduce abuses by aliens who do not face persecution but who are using the system to avoid deportation or exclusion from the United States.

15,000 Cases Annually

After passage of the Refugee Act of 1980, about 65 immigration judges who work in the Justice Department--and who are outside the control of the INS--began hearing up to 15,000 cases annually from asylum applicants, including many whose efforts to remain in the United States have been rejected by INS district directors.

Under the proposal, INS asylum officers would handle the cases and applicants who were rejected would have recourse on the question of asylum only with the Board of Immigration Appeals, bypassing the immigration judges.