Yesterday, in a 512-page Release (full text), the Department of Homeland Security adopted an Interim Final Rule (IFR) on procedures for deciding on applications for asylum. It summarized the new rule in part as follows:
The principal purpose of this IFR is to simultaneously increase the promptness, efficiency, and fairness of the process by which noncitizens who cross the border without appropriate documentation are either removed or, if eligible, granted protection. The IFR accomplishes this purpose both by instituting a new process for resolving the cases of noncitizens who have been found to have a credible fear of persecution or torture and by facilitating the use of expedited removal for more of those who are eligible, and especially for populations whose detention presents particular challenges.
