Trump's week in review: $490M in tax fraud uncovered; USCIS to speed up termination of refugee status

5. USCIS moves to shorten window for refugees to contest termination of status

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) submitted an interim final rule to the Federal Register Tuesday. The rule will take effect after a 30-day comment period.

The rule aims to “expedite termination of refugee status when [the Department of Homeland Security] determines an alien was not a refugee within the meaning of Section 101(a)(42) of the Immigration and Nationality Act at the time of admission to the United States.”

It would do this by cutting the time people have to respond to a Notice of Intent to Terminate (NOIT) their refugee status from 30 days to 10 days.

The administration says the change is needed because of concerns that some people obtained refugee status under false pretenses. It cites two examples: “In one case, a refugee was found to have participated in human rights abuses with the Liberian Armed Forces during the Liberian Civil War. In another case, a refugee was found to have misrepresented his involvement with the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an armed group in Ethiopia.”

The administration argued that “shortening the NOIT response period enables DHS to respond rapidly to such findings,” while “allowing a longer notice period could provide opportunities for aliens to evade enforcement or engage in harmful activities.”

World Relief, an Evangelical aid agency that receives public funding to help resettle refugees in the United States, criticized the rule in a statement Tuesday.

“Chipping away at refugees’ protections is one more attack on legal immigration, but it is also an affront to the due process promised every resident under the Constitution, not just to citizens,” said World Relief President and CEO Myal Greene.

“While humans are fallible, and no earthly process is perfect, the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has an incredibly strong track record in vetting. Any suggestion to the contrary implies a concerning unfamiliarity with the process or an insidious desire to undermine Constitutional rights.”