In a lawsuit against the Trump administration, immigration advocates insist that an asylum case should take “years” to conclude and want “at least a year” to prepare while applicants remain in the United States. The lawyers claim that the administration is unfairly singling out their clients, Somali asylum seekers, in a “Somali Fast-Track Policy,” giving them a compressed timeline of just four months or less to prepare for hearings—a timeline they argue is “essentially impossible.” Meanwhile, immigration enforcement advocates argue that extending the process enables abuses by asylum seekers. On Tuesday, the Hines Immigration Law firm and the Advocates for Human Rights, both based in Minnesota, sued the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs are represented by Democracy Forward, a liberal legal group whose chairman is veteran Democrat Party lawyer Marc Elias. They argue that immigration judges can accommodate a lengthier timeline. “In the past, IJs [immigration judges] have scheduled merits hearings for as far as two or three years out, with no indication that their calendars could not ‘go out’ that far,” the plaintiffs’ complaint says. The plaintiffs’ complaint accuses the administration of departing from precedent over the past two months “to rapidly set or advance immigration hearing dates” in the cases of Somali nationals. They argue the policy “substantially impedes” their work by speeding up the timeline to prepare for a hearing, leaving attorneys in some cases with “almost no time to gather and submit evidence.” NPR reported that there were 3,254 pending cases of Somalis in immigration court.  However, the plaintiffs’ demand for more time highlights a key defect in the nation’s immigration process, said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for enforcement of immigration law. “The demand to spend months and years on cases is precisely the problem,” Mehlman told The Daily Signal. “It’s why so many people abuse the asylum system. They can wait years for their case. Even if they are turned down, they can make another claim that because they have been here so long, they have too many connections to the country.” He added that this was among the problems of President Joe Biden’s administration. “It’s what fueled the border crisis under the Biden administration,” Mehlman said. “In 2023 and 2024, people would come into the country knowing they wouldn’t get a hearing until 2030.” The Justice Department did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment by publication time. In a story on the topic earlier this month, a Justice Department spokesperson told CBS News: “All cases are adjudicated in accordance with the applicable law. Moreover, EOIR [Executive Office for Immigration Review] is required by federal law to adjudicate asylum applications within 180 days. The suggestion that EOIR should delay adjudicating certain groups of cases is contrary to both EOIR’s mission and the law.” Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, called the speedy hearing process of Somali immigrants “the latest harmful step by this administration.” “The president’s targeting of people from Somalia has gone beyond hateful rhetoric – now by singling out Somali immigrants and forcing their cases onto an accelerated timeline that prevents them from being able to access counsel and have a fair hearing, the Trump-Vance administration is, once again, unlawfully trampling on people’s rights,” Perryman said in a public statement. Even if the administration was singling out asylum seekers from one country, it would be within its legal rights to do so, Mehlman said. “Courts have given the executive branch wide latitude, and if a president believes a certain group or groups of people are a priority, that is his right. There have certainly been allegations of fraud related to the Somali community in Minnesota.” Last week, five people involved in a scandal over the use of federal funds in Minnesota pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Mehlman further added that asylum cases are civil and not criminal matters. “They are not being denied their day in court, but are getting their day in court sooner,” he said. The post ‘Precisely the Problem’: Immigration Advocates Want Asylum Hearings Scheduled ‘Years’ Ahead appeared first on The Daily Signal.