DHS general counsel rebukes immigration lawyers for clogging asylum system with ‘frivolous’ claims

The Department of Homeland Security's top lawyer sent a pointed letter to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) this week, laying out a legal justification for tightening asylum standards and warning attorneys that those who file weak or fraudulent claims could face fines and are responsible for creating the 3.5-million case backlog. 

“If you are unhappy about the current administration’s actions curbing asylum abuse at the southern border,” DHS General Counsel James H. Percival II said in a Sept. 15 letter, “you must recognize that these measures are a necessary response to the broken rules and constant exploitation that you helped create and sustain.” According to the four-page letter, as of July there are 3.5 million immigration cases filed and 2.3 million pending asylum claims. 

Percival spent considerable space explaining his legal reasoning for the Trump administration’s denial of asylum claims. Most claims tied to gang violence or domestic abuse, he said, fail to meet the legal bar for asylum because they involve private actors rather than government persecution. Relying on the U.S. State Department’s Country reports, Percival argued that claims from Western Hemisphere countries are largely meritless given those nations' general safety and legal protections. Many asylum seekers could also safely relocate within their own country and therefore don't have valid claims, he added.

Percival warned that filing a “frivolous” asylum application can permanently bar an applicant from most other immigration relief and said attorneys who file such claims are “subject to penalties,” adding that DHS “will vigorously pursue all available remedies” against those engaged in the practice. Thus far, the department has levied hefty fines against two lawyers, one of whom, Suraj Raj Singh, was fined just over $470,000 for allegedly filing 118 fraudulent documents in 54 immigration cases.

The letter closed with a direct rebuke of the immigration bar itself, telling AILA that concerns about the administration's border enforcement must be weighed against what Percival called the group's own role in sustaining what he described as a broken and exploited system.

The letter builds on legal reasoning DHS has leaned on throughout the year, including Attorney General guidance holding that claims based on domestic or gang violence by non-government actors generally don't qualify for asylum, and citing State Department travel data and global peace indexes to argue most Western Hemisphere nations are safe. It reflects a broader posture from the department that meritless claims are typically filed to obtain work permits, delay deportation or secure release from custody rather than out of genuine fear of persecution.

AILA did not immediately respond to the letter publicly. The department's position marks the latest step in the administration's effort to narrow asylum eligibility standards as the court system for the requests continues to be overwhelmed, a decades-long problem. According to the U.N. refugee agency, by the end of 2024, 3.1 million people had applied for asylum globally and four countries – the U.S., Canada, Egypt and Germany – received over half of those applications.