The Trump administration has introduced a rule allowing US asylum officers to send some applicants directly to immigration courts without first interviewing them. The change could speed up removal proceedings and affect hundreds of thousands of cases, making it a significant shift in how asylum claims are handled.

Officials say the measure, effective Tuesday and open to 60 days of public comment, should reduce USCIS’s 1.4 million-case asylum backlog and focus resources on genuine protection claims. USCIS estimates up to 444,000 cases could be affected, while advocates argue that moving cases into immigration courts—which have a backlog of about 3 million cases—could limit applicants’ opportunity to explain their cases and increase deportations.