Phoney claims of asylum are clogging up an enormous backlog of more than 300,000 cases that must be decided for those seeking entry into the United States, acting Director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services office Ken Cuccinelli said Sunday.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Cuccinelli hailed a Supreme Court decision last week allowing new Trump administration restrictions on asylum claims.
But he lamented “a lot of fraudulent claims” are causing an enormous backlog.
“We have a 335,000 asylum case backlog which I take very seriously, and it has creeped up while I have been here, despite us throwing more and more resources at trying to drive it down,” he said.
“There are legitimate asylum claims in there. Some of them have been waiting over two years. And we take very seriously the need to get to those people. Unfortunately, this system is clogged up with a lot of fraudulent claims.“
Cuccinelli said officials are “ramping… up” measures to provide places and judges to deal with the claims “as quickly as we can logistically.”
“This will be measured in days, not weeks,” he vowed.
“Asylum is about safety, we do want people to be safe,” he said. “And the reality is, America is the most generous country in the world on this front, but we have to deal with the crisis we are facing down there. This will be a deterrent to some coming that are making false claims.”
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