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The INS can include protections in the implementing

regulations and practice of the expedited removal process to

enhance self-identification by those who have valid asylum

claims.  Those protections would include

· information about the asylum process and asylum seek-

ers' right to seek asylum protection before the expe-

dited removal process is begun in secondary inspec-

tions;

· allowing access to counsel, family members, and

friends--beginning in secondary inspections--who would

be able to assist arriving aliens by explaining the

right to asylum protections and the importance of

revealing the truth about any fears of persecution or

claims for asylum; and

· humanitarian treatment of people on arrival at our

borders, including freedom from strip searches and

handcuffing; and the provision of food, drink, and the

opportunity to rest from their flight before they are

asked questions about their persecution.

In the long term, the best remedy would be to elimi-

nate, through legislation, the filing deadline and expedited

removal provisions.  The Freedom from Religious Persecution

Act introduced in Congress in 1997 seems to implicitly

recognize the problems IIRIRA created.  That act would relax

the procedures for admitting asylum seekers who have suf-

fered persecution for their beliefs--a provision that is a

welcome acknowledgment that the new rules do not protect

refugees and asylum seekers.62  Those laws, which are un-

necessary as well as broad and arbitrary as currently draft-

ed, serve no real policy purpose.  They should be deleted

entirely from the statute.

Short of eliminating the new rules, the filing deadline

and expedited removal provisions should be amended to lessen

the likelihood that genuine asylum seekers will be mistak-

enly returned.  Two simple amendments to the asylum laws

could accomplish that.  One would involve imposing the

deadline only on applications filed as a defense to removal,

so that those who file for asylum by affirmatively present-

ing themselves to the INS are not subject to the deadline.63

That way those who have valid claims and are willing to take

the chance of being identified by the INS, and removed if

their application is unsuccessful, will have the ability,