Panel: Few Changes in Asylum Procedures (AP)

[Eugene]

Panel: Few Changes in Asylum Procedures

By SUZANNE GAMBOA
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 8, 2007; 12:26 AM

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan commission says the agency in charge of securing U.S. borders
is failing to protect asylum seekers from being wrongly deported or treated like criminals.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a report released Thursday
that the Homeland Security Department expanded expedited removal of immigrants _ against
its recommendation _ and continues to jail asylum seekers with criminals.

The commission said few of the changes it had recommended to Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff have been made.

-snip-

Mark Hetfield, director of the original study, said the commission found two years ago that
DHS was not following special procedures Congress put in place to ensure legitimate asylum
seekers weren't turned away as the country tightened immigration laws. Little has changed,
he said.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/08/AR2007020800010.html