Asylum Office Liaison meeting, Ken Madsen 12/08/10. Changes at the Asylum Office/Updates/Contact Info

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1 Asylum Office Liaison meeting, Ken Madsen 12/08/10 Changes at the Asylum Office/Updates/Contact Info There were 10,000 files 8 officers in ,000 cases pending, 24 officers at one point 15 officers now, 1 vacancy. Processing goal: Complete every case within 180 days Pickup of decisions was implemented within last 2 years. Limited to cases where there is a grant or referral. Notices of intent to deny are always done by mail. Pickup system been pretty successful. On an average trip officers interview 16 cases a week. Approximately 5 turn into pickups. People who don t get a pickup include people who live far away from Minnesota due to hardship on the applicant. New space. Move was funded three years ago. Date of move, October 1, New Address: 181 W. Madison Suite 3000 Chicago IL Slightly larger than old space, apportioned differently. Waiting room much larger. Nice new space. Were able to move everything within 30 days and only 1 week without interviews. How to get interview in Chicago Just write a letter stating desire interview in Chicago. How often will we come out? 25 Asylum and 4 Nacara applications that haven t been scheduled for interview. Officers will come to MN again at the end of February due to holidays and weather. Still shooting for 180 days from date of filing to interview. 60 cases that have been interviewed where cases have not been completed because officers have been in St. Paul back to back. Phone numbers have changed: Main phone SUPERVISORS contact info: Ed Jezka, circuit ride scheduling 5210 Joy Robinson, termination: 5211 Lisa Flanagan unaccompanied minors: 5208 Nick Milissis credible fear and reasonable fear cases 5205 New fax number: x5201. Ken Madsen: 5225 Congressional liaison: 5222 Arlene Kelly Fax number 5206 will still get through to the asylum office Qualification requirements of supervisors US citizens that s it. But out of 4 supervisors 3 are attorneys, the other has 35 years with DHS and knows everything about immigration. Credible fear: 2 nd credible fear determination question. How do you get a second credible fear case? If Asylum Office fails to serve a charging document on immigration proceedings. 1

2 What if removal was never carried out? Would need to file a motion to reopen in front of the judge. Madsen mentioned situation where charging documents were never served in the court. Credible fear finding, NTA never served on the court. Does asylum office have jurisdiction over asylum application? Credible fear if not credible fear can request review by an immigration judge does that shift jurisdiction to the immigration judge. If no and no and expedited removal then they re removed. BUT WHAT IF THEY RE NOT. Physically present in the US, equivalent of removal order. List of Questions 1. February It depends. Cases for pickup back in a couple of weeks. If no pickup as expeditiously as possible. Cases on local (Chicago) interview schedule must be completed within 60 days. Chicago Asylum Office also does circuit rides to other cities, like Boise, Helena, etc. Some cases do go into backlog. Cases are scheduled for interview 21 days in advance. Schedule circuit rides 4-5 months in advance. Ultimate goal is 180 days. 3. / 5. If you have a case older than 180 days, may be pending further background investigation something that takes time something that may have come up in asylum office background checks. Could be something that came up during the interview. Ex. Individual with very common Hispanic name. Watchlist hit with same birthdate. During the interview asks questions, someone wanted for murder. Never been printed, but may have prints from scene of the crime. So will not grant NACARA permanent residence to the guy so file has to go to ICE, Chicago Police Department. 2 years later determine it s not your guy. A lot of them end up being on watchlist that takes a long time to clear. If no decision within 180 days, that s why. 2 fraud detection and national security officers at all immigration officers, they help resolve these issues. Not part of the 15 not in with the regular officers-are in a different suite. Are there to help us but not influence us. Best way to inquire with our office Asylum office has an employee whose full time job is to answer inquiries. Send a fax, write a letter. You should get a response to that. If you don t get a decent response to that then call Ken Madsen. You get what you inspect not what you expect! If you already inquired multiple times and get the same answer, you re not going to get a different answer. For a variety of reasons office will not provide more detail, like if person is on terrorist watch list. Good computerized file tracking system. What else can you do to obtain a decision if no we re working on it letter, call Ken Madsen or him: Kenneth.madsen@dhs.gov. Preference or phone? Ken gets a lot of s, but whatever you prefer 4. Nunc pro tunc Very difficult cases because asylum office has to get all the files together (principal/dependents). One office has bedbugs in the file room. Are fumigating right now. Want the principal files together. File may not be in the computer system and need to get the paper record. Procedure as follows: You send the 589 asylum office puts the order in to get the files. All file requests go in, until that time the nunc pro tunc 2

3 589 is not put into the computer system. Applicant will not get a receipt until the application has been put in the system. Even if it has been three months send a letter to ask about the delay in receipting the file. Madsen would be happy to have case done within 60 days. Generally will schedule case immediately after it s in the system. Try to get them done right away. At interview if applicant may not be Nunc Pro Tunc eligible give full hearing on the merits. Administrative anything that precludes you from having your own grant of asylum are there any bars from a principal grant of asylum. 99% of those cases go through without an issue, but there are more issues these days. Additional question during meeting about Nunc pro tunc and dependents: Possible asylum office postures regarding dependents who were married or who had kids before coming to the US: 1) you clearly committed fraud and we should just send you to the judge 2) you didn t get a full discussion with the refugee processing. As long as no indication of fraud in application process, we will give you a pass on the marriage. Seems ridiculous to try to remove person. If no mala fide intent on part of the applicant, AO will make the derivative a principal. If you want to include dependents, you must have a full merits hearing and be granted in your own right, then include dependents. If Nunc Pro Tunc granted and your subsequently filed 485 approved then you can get your spouse in anyway. 6. See above re pickup of decisions 7. Will skip and come back to never came back to it. 8. If someone leaves the US what happens if no asylum interview yet, applicant is considered to have abandoned application unless got advanced parole. If interviewed and then and applicant leaves and asylum office grants while applicant is outside the US, not eligible for grant because not physically present. If office finds out they will do a rescission because no jurisdiction. If applicant went back to country where claimed fear of persecution very hard to show continued eligibility. But AO would examine circumstances. What if you get your grant and then go home? If dependents are still here what is their status? Derivative asylees. But if comes to attention to the Service that principal went back would institute termination proceedings. And by automatic action of law the dependents would be terminated too. Dependents can file on their own. 1 year rule comes into play but maintenance of asylee status qualifies as an exceptional circumstance. When dependent files for adjustment of status will know that the principal left and asylum office would move to rescind proceedings. Status wouldn t expire until it was terminated. Huge number of 1 year referrals. Additional questions regarding 1 year deadline issue 1 year deadline questions if applicant did not hold status for over 1 year period but then does obtain some sort of status, such as TPS, does your office consider the maintenance of status to be an exception to a one year filing deadline. No because exceptional circumstance must occur within the one year period. 3

4 If application is filed anyway but grant not issued what will your office do with the case: applicant should be issued a notice of intent to deny then final denial. Changed circumstances changed personal circumstances. May have changed country conditions in the meantime. 9. Contact Ken directly about case 10. EAD clock When you file the application, the clock starts. If computer is updated properly the clock will run or stop depending upon what happens. Could be error in your favor or disfavor. If request reschedule case, then clock stops. If there is an error in the EAD clock, Madsen has to contact headquarters to fix it. Very cumbersome, but useful for tracking purposes. If reopening case, clock should have continued to run. If terminated proceedings and new application, then new clock. Aster Zeleke-acting director New Jersey asylum office EOIR number and the clock relationship? Yes that is the EAD clock. Supposed to interface with the Asylum Office system. Going through transformation in order to at one point be paperless. Trying to communicate electronically with other immigration related entities. Immigration court trial attorneys on their own system. If case is in proceedings problem with asylum clock EAD, they contact the asylum office and asylum office contacts DC to get things worked out. Court administrators get in touch with Madsen. 11. All reasonable fear cases and all of the credible fear cases go to HQ. They are reviewed to make sure that we are applying the law fairly and consistently nationally. Also cases that will be publicized, something that is going to be groundbreaking. Want consistency look at a number of cases randomly. How long does it take? They are trying hard to move those cases a lot, trying to keep up with the 180 days. Reasonable fear and credible fear cases take priority because individuals are in custody. 2 priority are cases that are high visibility Then the rest get lumped together; gender cases, still sent to HQ. Juvenile cases are sent to HQ. Wilberforce (unaccompanied minors) can have removal proceedings stayed while asylum case gets filed. A number of those have been granted all of those are looked at by HQ Entire set of guidelines on interviewing children and how to deal with claims from minors. Are you unaccompanied, when is guardian a legal guardian. If child is in removal proceedings the appropriate action would be file motion to stay removal proceedings with immigration judge. Ask for proceedings to be stayed under Wilberforce trafficking reauthorization act. Will put the date out for an extended period and/or close proceedings. Additional question: if child is unaccompanied at entry but rejoins family, what is determination of asylum office regarding if child is an unaccompanied minor Asylum office makes the analysis at the time the application is filed regarding whether person is unaccompanied minor or not. 12. Every decision is reviewed by a supervising officer. Most of the people are sympathetic, but must apply the law fairly and evenly. Supervisory review, to push people to make the right decision under the law. 4

5 Brought up example of asylum officer approx 5 yrs ago who did not apply the correct legal standard and wanted to deny every case. This officer when discussing the interview of the spouse of an asylum applicant, said I should have broken her. No longer with asylum office. Asylum office goal is consistent decisions, decisions that are legally sufficient. Lisa and Joy, supervisors for approx 3-4 years. If you think supervisor didn t do right thing then contact Ken Madsen. Right now out of staff of 15, 2/3 of the asylum officers are attorneys. Asylum officers are not on the defensive with the attorney. There is fraud in the program. #1 concern about fraud if too much fraud in the program people become suspicious. Nothing bad has happened relating to our program. Asylum office is hiring cool and miserable at the same time. Very tight on money. Slow to hire. Vacancy for clerk for 2 ½ years. Not much upward mobility in the Chicago Asylum Office. 13. Quotas on how many cases can be granted? No. Historically the grant rate has been 1/3 of the cases filed. That rate has remained consistent. Minneapolis has had the highest grant rate out of our office over 50%. Any special reason why grant rate higher in Mpls? Nationalities represented here and legal representation. Sometimes goes to the detriment of the applicant that they had an attorney. Not everyone is above board. 14. Example, if applicant missed interview because AO sent to old address and applicant had updated address, asylum office will take those cases back. Once case served on court it is more difficult because Ken Madsen needs to get in touch to the trial attorney to request the case back. Usually will want some evidence that the case was not delivered. If case has been referred what can you do about it? Once referral to immigration judge unless an error of law or procedure. Ken Madsen will fight to get a case back if there is an error in law and /or procedure. Must get the trial attorney to sign off on terminating proceedings. Good working relationship recommend going to OCC. Asylum office can provide letter to document file while getting case back. Question about Immigration attorney participation during the interview: Attorney adding questions during the interview or making comments some officers permit more than others. Don t encourage to question applicant directly, but no objection to that. As you get more acquainted with people have allowed attorneys to ask some questions, especially when no mala fide intent on the part of the attorney Role of attorney is limited. Should never say that the attorney has no role. END 5