(Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)The Trump administration has sent new guidelines to asylum officers, directing them to take a more skeptical and confrontational approach during interviews with migrants seeking refuge in the United States. The administration’s changes take effect immediately, and asylum officers will be trained in their application in the coming weeks, according to the emails and CIS officials. Lafferty also told staff that 10 U.S. Border Patrol agents had volunteered to join a pilot program that will train them to conduct credible fear screenings. “Credible fear interviews involve the discussion of sensitive, difficult issues,” Julie Veroff of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrant Rights Project wrote Monday, calling the plan “highly concerning.”“Federal law thus requires that credible fear interviews be conducted in a ‘nonadversarial manner,’” Veroff wrote. “Credible fear interviews have always been conducted by professionals who specialize in asylum adjudication, not immigration enforcement.”

Source: Washington Post May 07, 2019 19:09 UTC