The Department of Homeland Security said on Monday that it will begin sending some asylum seekers directly to immigration court without first interviewing them, a sharp change to a process that has long included a formal meeting with immigration officials. The new rule is set to take effect on Tuesday.
The move puts the Trump administration asylum rules in the center of a system already under strain. USCIS said the backlog exceeded 1.4 million cases by the end of 2025, and that more than 444,000 of those backlogged cases may be affected by the rule. The agency also estimated that more than 132,000 asylum seekers each year could be referred straight to immigration court without an interview.
For applicants, the change removes a step that lawyers have treated as a key part of affirmative asylum claims, meaning people who proactively seek protection in the United States. Reuben Kerben said some of his clients have been waiting as long as 15 years for their asylum interview, a delay he said makes the latest policy shift feel less like reform than acceleration. He said the rule is another tool to keep the deportation machine humming.
USCIS said the change is meant to reduce the affirmative asylum backlog, improve efficiency, safeguard national security and public safety, and keep the agency aligned with its priorities. Joseph Edlow said the asylum system has long been exploited for delay and work authorization, and said the agency wants resources directed to timely decisions on genuine claims instead of people using the system as a loophole.
That split captures the fight around the rule. USCIS says the interview step was never a statutory right and that people who raise security concerns can have their claims heard in an adversarial setting before an immigration judge. Immigration lawyers say the faster track is designed to speed up rejections and deportations, and Kerben warned that many asylum seekers could also lose access to work permits on the expedited timeline. The open question is not whether the rule changes the process; it does. It is how many people will be pushed straight into immigration court once Tuesday arrives, and how quickly the system starts moving them there.
