In a speech at the department’s Executive Office
For Immigration Review, Sessions said too many immigrants were taking
advantage of the rules, and urged Congress to pass legislation that
could make it harder for asylum petitions to be granted.
Overhauling
the U.S. asylum system was on a list of immigration proposals the White
House sent Congress over the weekend that President Donald Trump wants
in exchange for a legislative fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals (DACA) program. Most of the principles, including a crackdown
on the influx of Central American unaccompanied minors, are likely to be
non-starters for Democrats.
Sessions did not announce any specific policy shifts in his speech but urged Congress to act.
“Congress
must pass the legislative priorities President Trump announced this
week, which included significant asylum reform, swift border returns,
and enhanced interior enforcement,” he said.
He said there were “loopholes” in the law that
allow immigrants, whom federal officials determine have a “credible
fear” of returning to their home countries, to be released pending a
hearing before a judge.
He also advocated for imposing and
enforcing penalties for “baseless” asylum applications, elevating the
threshold standard of proof in credible fear interviews, and expanding
the ability to return asylum seekers to safe third countries.
After
they pass their credible fear review, many people simply disappear and
never show up at their immigration hearings, Sessions said.
He
blamed the Obama administration for a policy shift in 2009 that allowed
them to be released from custody, and said he believed many peoples’
credible fear claims were simply a “ruse to enter the country
illegally.”
Human Rights First, a group that
provides pro bono legal assistance to refugees, said the attorney
general’s comments mischaracterized asylum seekers as “threats and
frauds.”
“These individuals are not criminals,” said senior
director Eleanor Acer in a statement, “they are mothers, teenagers, and
children desperate to escape violence and persecution.” 
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