When you are caught at the border or when you surrender to immigration officials, and when you express the fear of returning to your home country, there will be a process that immigrants detained by ICE will have to go through. In this segment of our website, our immigration attorneys explain the process of how to claim asylum after being caught crossing the border without valid documents.
An immigrant person without legal documents in the United States of America can request the Credible Fear Interview. This request is made on the basis that the person is afraid of returning to their country, this may be for reasons of extortion, violence, torture, or for any damage or mistreatment suffered by the person or a close family member. This request can be made regardless of whether the person is detained in a detention center or not.
If the officer determines that the fear is credible, the person will have the opportunity to present their asylum case before the Immigration Court, which after a process of different courts, the Immigration Judge will determine if the person applies to receive asylum in the States. United.
If the asylum officer determines that the fear is not credible, meaning that the person’s case does not meet the requirements for the person to apply for asylum in the United States, the immigrant has the opportunity to request that the judge of Immigration review the asylum officer’s decision. Therefore, an appointment will be scheduled with the Immigration Judge where the person will have the opportunity to present their case again and explain in detail what their fear of returning to their country consists of. If the Immigration Judge considers that the fear of the person is credible, he will grant the immigrant the opportunity to present his application for asylum before the Immigration Court and will initiate a process like the one mentioned in the previous paragraph.
If the Immigration Judge considers that the person’s fear of returning to their country is not credible the case and affirms the decision of the asylum officer, the case goes to the Department of Homeland Security again and the person has the opportunity to present another resource. This remedy consists of the Motion to Reconsider the findings of the Credible Fear Interview. This document gives the immigrant the opportunity to present evidence that was not available at the time of the credible fear interview because it was events or events that occurred in a period of time after the interview. If the Asylum Department approves the Motion, the immigrant will have a new credible fear interview to present their case to an asylum officer. If the officer considers that now there is a credible fear, the immigrant will have the opportunity to apply for asylum before the Immigration Court. If the officer determines that the fear is still not credible, the person will have to return to their country of origin.