US will train dozens of border agents to screen for asylum

Immigration officials will train dozens of U.S. border patrol agents to start screening immigrants arriving on the southwest border for asylum amid a surge in the number of families seeking the protection, a government official said Wednesday.

L. Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said his agency will train about 60 border agents over the next few months to join in conducting the screenings on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The first group of 10 agents will start receiving training in Los Angeles next week.

“These agents are going to be receiving weeks of training. They’re going to be here at least a month,” Cissna said in an interview with The Associated Press on a visit to immigration offices in Laguna Niguel, California. “And so too will all the subsequent cadres of border patrol agents.”

The move comes as the Trump administration is grappling with a surge in the number of families with children arriving on the border. Border arrests are down compared with decades ago, but the number of children and families seeking asylum, many of them from Central America, has risen in recent years.

The number of immigrants apprehended on the border topped 100,000 for the second month in a row in April, the highest number recorded since 2007.

Asylum officers conduct initial interviews of immigrants arriving on the border to determine whether they have a credible fear of returning to their countries or should be sent back. Those who pass the interviews are allowed to seek asylum before an immigration judge, but their cases may take years to wind through the backlogged immigration courts.

Immigrant advocates have voiced concerns about border patrol agents conducting the screenings, which are meant to be interviewed, not interrogations. Clara Long, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said agents often intimidate immigrants when initially asking if they fear to return to their countries.

“What we see over and over again is Border Patrol just has a culture of disbelieving asylum seekers,” she said. “It’s really hard to imagine these agents being able to create the openness and trust and listening that’s really required for a credible fear interview.”

A message was sent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection seeking comment. Cissna said he was confident agents could conduct the interviews and would be fully trained.