While Republicans continue to obstruct bipartisan programs to stem illegal border crossings at the command of adjudicated rapist Donald Trump, the Biden Administration works to speed up processing of the tens of thousands of asylum seekers entering the United States.
Per Reuters, the program would process asylum claims for single adults within 180 days by setting up “recent arrival dockets” at immigration courts in five cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. Immigration courts–which are headed by administrators appointed by the Attorney General, not actual jurists–are facing a long backlog because of budget and personnel shortfalls stressed by Republican obstructionism.
“This administrative step is no substitute for the sweeping and much-needed changes that the bipartisan Senate bill would deliver,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement, jabbing at Trump’s slavish GOP House caucus.