Top asylum official reassigned to Virginia processing center

The highest asylum official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers shall be reassigned, based on 5 present and former DHS officers and an company e-mail reviewed by POLITICO.

The official — Asylum Division Chief John Lafferty — will turn out to be deputy director of the Potomac Service Middle in Arlington, Va., beginning Sept. 10, the e-mail stated.

The choice comes as President Donald Trump proceeds with a sweeping overhaul of the asylum system, which gives protection for people who face persecution of their residence nations.

Trump and his prime officers have argued that many asylum seekers don’t have valid claims and use the profit to stay within the U.S. and work legally. The administration has plowed ahead with a variety of policies to limit access to asylum, together with the “stay in Mexico” initiative, which forces certain non-Mexico asylum seekers to remain in that nation while they await rulings on their instances.

The White House blamed Lafferty, who has led the asylum division for the previous six years, for an incapability to toughen asylum standards, in response to one current DHS official.

Particularly, the administration has sought to tighten the commonplace to say “credible worry” of persecution in a single’s house nation. The credible worry check is step one in sure asylum claims, and the administration contends it allows individuals to enter the U.S. even when finally they gained’t be granted asylum.

A USCIS spokesperson stated in a written assertion that the agency retains discretion to move senior executives to totally different roles inside the department, but did not comment on Lafferty’s case specifically.

“USCIS, like different federal entities, has a cellular group of senior executives who qualify for quite a lot of positions,” the spokesperson stated. “USCIS has the authority to reassign these high-level managers to greatest serve the agency.“

BuzzFeed News first tweeted Lafferty’s reassignment. The outlet also reported in July that Lafferty criticized the Trump administration’s chaotic strategy to policymaking in an e mail to staffers.

The e-mail particularly targeted on the implementation of a new ban on asylum seekers who transit by way of one other nation en path to the U.S.

"We are as soon as once more being requested to adapt and to take action with very little time to train and put together," he wrote. "If I did not know that we've got a few of the most devoted, most adaptable and most gifted public servants presently serving in the federal authorities I might be involved about with the ability to implement these modifications on such brief notice."

A federal decide in San Francisco blocked the third-country asylum ban nationwide in July, however the ninth Circuit Courtroom of Appeals limited the injunction several weeks later to its jurisdiction in California and Arizona. That allowed the policy to be put into place in New Mexico and Texas.

The email that introduced Lafferty’s new position came from Jennifer Higgins, an associate director for refugee and asylum operations.

“John has served with distinction as the chief of the asylum division for the past six years and has led the division by means of a few of its most challenging occasions and a interval of unprecedented progress and change,” Higgins wrote. “John’s leadership was characterized by a selfless, unwavering, and passionate dedication to these he served — the applicants, his employees, and the American public.”

In the new position, Lafferty will assist oversee 700 agency employees and 200 contractors processing permanent resident purposes and worldwide scholar work permits, in accordance with the email.

He might be replaced in an appearing capability by Andrew Davidson, presently the deputy associate director for the agency’s fraud detection and national safety directorate.

Lafferty didn't immediately reply to a request for remark.

Article originally revealed on POLITICO Magazine

Src: Top asylum official reassigned to Virginia processing center
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