White House Confirms DHS to Expedite Asylum Decisions to Address Backlog from Biden Era

This Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will speed up asylum decisions to tackle the backlog inherited from the Biden administration.

"President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security will accelerate asylum case decisions as part of an effort to reduce the massive backlog left by former President Joe Biden's administration," she stated.

This announcement comes two days after the department released an interim final rule enabling the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to refer asylum cases directly to immigration judges without first interviewing the applicant. The aim is to dismantle the extensive backlog accumulated during the Biden administration.

The measure, which takes effect immediately according to the official DHS announcement, removes a step that the Trump administration describes as a second review opportunity that has been exploited to delay deportations and secure work permits.

Under the previous system, USCIS was required to interview each applicant before deciding whether to approve the case or forward it to an immigration court. The new rule eliminates this mandatory interview and also removes regulatory references to the applicant's "right" to appear before an asylum officer.

According to DHS estimates, approximately 444,000 of the nearly 1.4 million pending affirmative asylum cases could be impacted by this change, which may also affect over 132,000 new annual applications.

Joseph Edlow, the director of USCIS, justified the decision with a strong argument: "For too long, the asylum system has been exploited for delay and work authorization purposes, rather than legitimate claims of protection. The system exists to protect those who genuinely fear persecution, and this rule will help ensure resources are dedicated to timely resolution of those claims."

DHS General Counsel James Percival was more direct in pointing out those he believes have overwhelmed the system: "One of the largest barriers to effective enforcement of immigration law is the intentional delay by illegal aliens and the open-border attorneys who represent them. This rule will do precisely what the president ordered."

The backlog the measure aims to address is of historic proportions: the total pending applications—combining cases before USCIS and immigration courts—reached nearly 4 million in April 2026, with courts recording 3.3 million active cases in March of that year.

The Trump administration attributes this collapse to policies from the Biden era, during which the immigration court backlog grew from 1.2 million at the end of Trump's first administration to nearly 3.5 million by the end of fiscal year 2024.

The asylum approval rate reflects the dramatic shift in immigration policy: under Biden, judges granted 48.1% of applications in fiscal year 2023, a figure that plummeted to 8.8% in the first half of fiscal year 2026, the lowest level in over a decade.

This new rule complements other measures that have reshaped the immigration system: the imposition of an annual $102 fee on applications pending for more than a year, the hiring of 120 new immigration judges with accelerated training, and the Supreme Court ruling on June 25, 2026, authorizing the rejection of applicants at the Mexican border without processing their applications.

USCIS will accept public comments for 60 days, until September 28, 2026, before issuing a final definitive rule.

Researcher Andrew R. Arthur from the Center for Immigration Studies anticipated the direction the system will take: "It is expected that asylum denials will increase and grants will decrease, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of total decisions, at least while Trump is president."