Ximena Bustillo

They are housed all within the Justice Department, which means that they're under the executive branch of government.

They are not independent judiciary courts.

There is one Obama appointee and there's one Bush appointee.

The rest were either appointed during Trump 1 or the second Trump administration.

Last year, there were 70 precedent decisions.

And of those 70, 97%, so all but essentially about two, sided with DHS.

And in one of the two cases where the board did not side with DHS, it was because DHS didn't even show up to the initial hearing.

speaking with people who have sat on the board, who have litigated in front of the board, and are familiar with the inner workings of the board, say that the reason this appeals process exists is simply because even the best immigration judges can make a mistake.

And this is mistakes on all sides, mistakes that could grant permissions to stay in the country or could deny permissions to stay in the country.

And so it is only fair in due process that

both sides get the chance to challenge that and to appeal that.

The Trump administration will resume reviewing asylum applications after a four-month pause.

The agency announced the freeze in November after an Afghan national was charged with shooting two National Guard members, killing one of them.

The decision left millions of pending asylum applications at U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services in limbo.

Now the pause is only in effect for about 40 countries, all which have travel restrictions to the U.S.

In a statement, the agency says that the new policy allows for resources to focus on national security and public safety vetting for higher risk cases.

Ximena Bustillo, NPR News, Washington.

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